I love Starbucks. Not that the coffee is that great or the people are any better. Starbucks makes me feel different, even though I'm a faceless customer.
They make me want to be a better person. It's not about coffee. Think about it for a minute a simple exchange of money for coffee is nothing more than a chilly transaction.
Let me explain the story that made me love Starbucks so much.
Since selling my businesses, I have two choices in the morning: go to my home office and deal with people via phone or go to a coffeeshop and meet people the old fashion way.
On one particular coffeeshop workday, I had four consecutive meetings with just enough time between to prepare and liquidate for the next encounter.
It was a blistery, minus 30 degrees celsius outside. It was the type of day, where one rushes from the parked car to the office with the collars turned up to keep the ears from catching cold.
Not paying attention to the internal surroundings nor the others who've escaped the outside to the warm tables of Starbucks, I worked away.
From my peripheral vision, there was a guy sitting on a sofa directly across from me. I couldn't help but notice him. He was about 10 feet away and every time I looked up in thought, there was this mangled beard. He had a big coat on, that was almost as puffy as his beard, which he chose not to take off. He was a street person. Homeless, I assumed. I looked up, pretending to look deeply into the wall behind him, catching a peak through my peripheral vision wondering why a homeless dude would go to Starbucks for his coffee fix. There were clearly cheaper options.
He wasn't hurting anyone so no one complained. He just sat there and kept warm while others like me worked away on our shiny, expensive tools. Happy that he was able to stay warm on this terribly cold Canadian day, I kept on working.
Eventually I had to go to the bathroom. While I was gone, a thought blew between my ears: What if the dude rips off my computer while I'm indisposed. Then, another thought: Anyone can steal my computer, why am I only worried about that guy. Quickly shaking the thought off, I wash my hands and get back to my seat to verify that all my possessions were still in tact.
The guy was sitting there for about an hour when a Starbucks employee came over. There was a quick exchange that I couldn't decipher.. The employee left and then returned with a coffee for the bearded guy.
Shit! That hurt. What didn't I think of that? I could've easily bought this dude a coffee. I was too busy in my own thoughts to even be bothered to extend a helpful hand to someone less fortunate.
Starbucks is awesome. They could've easily kicked this guy out. He wasn't buying anything. But instead they did what I should have done. And for that, they taught me a very valuable lesson.
Helping humanity is as simple as buying a coffee for a dude who's trying to stay warm on a cold Canadian morning.
Thank you Starbucks! You showed me how to be a better person. That's rare in corporate America.
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