Thanksgiving and My Small Business

Exactly ten years ago this past week, Mark and I had a...heated discussion (we never argue about anything. Nope. Never...) about being open for Thanksgiving. I explained that it is one day of the year when most other coffee joints are closed, and thus we could both serve our own market and perhaps introduce our brand to a few lucky souls who had never been in to see us before. And yes, in those lean years, the thought of making margin on even a slim day of sales was compelling.

At first, I thought Mark's response was uncharacteristically surfacy: he didn't really feel like working on Thanksgiving Day, and didn't think our employees would feel like it either.

"WTF [de-emphasis mine]? What do you mean 'don't feel like it?'" I raged. "I bet Patton didn't really feel like fighting at the Bulge when he coulda been sunnin' his hindquarters at the beach instead, eh?".

I'm a notoriously slow learner. And as an added bonus, I'm pig-headed too: I fight with all my energy against the seductive radiance of enlightenment. But with 3650 days of business under my belt, I have come to accept a few truths:

• Close on holidays. The few dollars we may make won't pay for the resulting ill-will of our employees. And moreover, those businesses that make money on holidays...you probably wouldn't want to own one of them anyway. We'll save that for another post.
• On the occasions when we've all been plowed together by nothing more than fate and our personally-insensitive calendar of holidays, when for whatever irrational reason we dread the feast and yearn for solitude, well, I think of it as yet another Great Exercise: it reminds me that there's more to life than my business (like blogging about my business, for example...).
• All joking aside, particularly on Thanksgiving, I try to be appreciative, godammit. I try to be conscious that the burden of plunging toilets at Kaladi, of fighting with Mark, of morphing mutinies and assuaging psychotic clients is a PRIVILEGE. It really is. You know why? They're MY toilets. Mark is MY business partner, the armed insurrections are among MY help, and those psychotic clients are MY peeps. I mean many of those psychotic clients know me better than my rabbi.

When I ask the Universe why I have been saddled with such an unruly business, the answer always comes back the same: "because you made it this way, silly".

And thus, today (and every other day when I can manage it) I am grateful. I'm grateful for my role in a business that makes clients happy. I'm grateful that my business has evolved into a entity that pays its bills and operates in a sound and ethical manner. And I'm grateful that I have been blessed enough to take part in an endeavor that, despite the incalculable messiness of it all, supports my employees, my partner, and myself, and enables us to live and love our lives, and make a difference in this evolving world, year after year.

Plagiarizing a catch-word from Jewish Passover liturgy, I say "Dayeinu". A bit out of context, the generally accepted translation of Dayeinu is"it is enough". Whatever It is, more if It will not make us happier people. But, if we're lucky, being thankful for It may do the trick.

Happy Thanksgiving and best wishes from my family, and from all of us at Kaladi Coffee in Denver.