A Transformative Cup of Coffee

The coffee shop closest to my home holds a special place in my life. The mom-and-pop opened just as Starbucks was establishing a foothold in the market, but it has remained popular with Butler University students, commuters and neighborhood folks.

One spring day like any other day in 1999, I stepped up to the counter with a Wall Street Journal tucked under one arm and ordered a dark roast, no room. At a table, I stirred in one packet of sugar and unfolded my paper.

The center column below the fold is where the Journal publishes articles on a wide variety of topics likely to attract the eyeballs of a broad audience. On this day, the article was about executive coaching. It was the first time I had seen the words executive and coach in the same sentence. As I read about this growing profession, the skills required to coach executives and why companies were hiring coaches to work with their high performers, it was as if the article were speaking directly to me.

When we desire something with our whole heart, the universe will conspire with us to make it happen.

Deep inside me, I was sure that serving as a coach to executives would be rewarding and not feel like work. Though I was clueless about how to develop the skills required of a coach or how to monetize my efforts, I was committed right then and there.

I entered that coffee shop thinking it was just another forgettable break from my workday. I assumed I would sip my coffee and read as I had done so many other times, after which that half hour of my life would be forgotten. Instead, I left that coffee shop feeling compelled to strike out on a new career.

Two years later, I had reinvented myself. I had my first coaching clients and a strategy to monetize my coaching practice. My fiscal flywheel was turning. A coffee break turned into a life-changing experience.

In his April 13 Wall Street Journal review of Joseph Epstein’s autobiography, Matthew Continetti wrote:

“Mr. Epstein has no grand plan. One of his autobiography’s themes is the contingency of events, the series of accidents happy and sad, that come to define us.”

My own happy contingency of events around a cup of coffee and a Wall Street Journal more than a quarter century ago changed me and made me who I am today.

Some would call my experience in the coffee shop and my subsequent decision the result of coincidence, a happy accident. Others would say it was part of a grand plan. Would the results have been the same had I read the article at home without coffee and the coffee shop ambiance? I think not.

Coffee and coffee shops are an integral part of my business and social life. They are where I meet colleagues, clients, friends and prospects. Although I make a decent cup of java and I have a comfy home office here at world headquarters, I prefer the ambiance of a coffee shop for meetings other than my one-to-one coaching sessions.

Next time you’re sitting in your favorite coffee shop, look around at all the quiet activity. Think about all the calories being burned in all the coffee shops in the world on any given day as people sip their brew and collaborate on projects, negotiate deals, converse with friends, flirt, read, study, make calls, send text messages and answer emails. How are lives shifting over those cups of coffee?

At the heart of Brazilian author Paulo Coelho’s novel “The Alchemist” is his belief that when we desire something with our whole heart, the universe will conspire with us to make it happen. I believe this is true, and I believe the universe conspired to assist me on my quest to launch a new career.

What are your thoughts? Who has a serendipitous experience to share that altered their career or their life?

Please add your experience to my post on LinkedIn. 

(Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash)