The water buffalo are waiting at the gate.
Mike McFall
Biggby Coffee Headquarters in East Lansing, Michigan
Small house coffee
Embrace uncertainty; it keeps life interesting.
“Do you ever wonder how your life would be if you had made one decision differently?” Mike McFall asked me this question as we sat in his office at the Headquarters of Biggby Coffee, a popular Midwestern coffee chain.
The question came after he’d recounted the events that led him to spend a year of high school sailing around the world for a study-at-sea experience. His mom had picked up a brochure about the program thinking Mike might be interested. Mike was slightly intrigued, so he filled out the application and threw it on his coffee table—where it sat for weeks, forgotten amongst the various items coffee tables tend to accumulate.
While sitting on the couch one afternoon, his mother uncovered the application and consulted Mike, “Do you still want to do this, or should I toss it?”
Mike figured since he had filled it out; he might as well mail it. The decision changed his life. It was, unsurprisingly, an incredible experience that shaped his perspective, introduced him to new ideas, and ultimately helped him get into a very selective college despite his lackluster grades. He often asked himself afterward, “How would my life be different if I had just let my mom toss the application?”
* * *
We were sitting in Mike’s office, a room with a round table and chairs with bare walls (he had recently moved in and hadn’t gotten around to decorating). When I had arrived, he gave me a quick tour of the office that ended at the mock Biggby store where new franchise owners learn the ropes.
He told me the story of his experience at sea after I mentioned that one of the most-important lessons I had learned so far during 52 Cups had been that life never goes according to plan. Mike understood what I meant immediately. Living in Lansing, Michigan and working as the President of Biggby Coffee hadn’t been in his forecast when he’d graduated from Kalamazoo College in 1994.
A research project had brought him to Lansing. While working 20 hours a week on the project, he had an abundance of time and scarcity of money so he dropped off an application at every coffee shop in town. He ended up at Biggby, which, at the time, was a small one-store operation that sold about 300 cups a day.
He’d been working there a couple of months when one day he went for a walk with the co-founder, Bob Fish. He didn’t explain the details—and I didn’t ask because I liked the mystique of the story—but the walk had turned into a four-hour ordeal that ended with an agreement between Mike and Bob to expand their small coffee business together.
Ten years later, they had grown to over 100 stores selling 33,000 cups a day.
Mike’s story captivated me. I loved when people jumped on a big opportunity without knowing where it would lead. That’s what I had done my whole life, and it had led to remarkable experiences.
We continued talking about the uncertainty of life, specifically regarding career paths. Mike mentioned something I understood immediately, “People follow the path—corporate job, marriage, kids, mortgage, etc.—because it’s a safer route.”
Uncertainty is difficult; it’s easier to follow the route many have taken before.
That’s something I’d discovered in the previous six months. There isn’t a rulebook when you’re paving your own way; you’ve got to make your own decisions and live with the unpredictability of where those decisions lead. That’s a lot of pressure, which explains why we all too often opt for the path of least resistance.
Back when I started 52 Cups, I was planning on finding a corporate job like everyone expected I would. I was stuck in the mindset that there was just one route to success, and if I didn’t find that one specific route, I would be setting myself up for irreversible failure. But 52 Cups has helped me realize that is not the case at all.
Life is what you make it—and you get to make it whatever you want.
* * *
I used to look for ways to make the fear of uncertainty go away, but failed every time. The reality is that life is unpredictable: the uncertainty never goes away.
Choosing to live an unconventional life means more risk and less certainty. It is the price you pay for the opportunity to make a remarkable life.
Mike agrees. He has spent his whole life living unconventionally; he has never been able to follow the crowd, and it is clear his strategy has paid off.
Cup 30 is a reminder that you can’t predict what opportunities life will bring—like a parent making a recommendation for a life-changing experience, or an unexpected walk turning into something more—but the unpredictable moments are the ones that keep life interesting and fun.
Kenyatta Berry
Phone call from East Lansing, Michigan to Los Angeles, California
Homemade brewed coffee
It’s all right to strike out a few times.
In college, Kenyatta Berry found herself on academic probation. It wouldn’t be the first time, and it wasn’t because she wasn’t smart. In high school, she had gone to a Detroit magnet school for gifted kids and was always interested in learning. She just had better things to worry about than grades. Eventually, she got her grades into good enough shape to earn a degree in Business Administration from Michigan State (which is how we had a mutual friend who suggested we meet). Then she headed to law school.
It was during her time in law school that she discovered the then-emerging technological phenomenon called the Internet. Kenyatta hadn’t understood what it was, or what it would become, but she knew she wanted to be a part of it. She geared her law classes toward Intellectual Property and Patent Law, and helped start a student group focused on Internet Law.
She was active and driven, yet her grades weren’t cutting it—once again, she was placed on academic probation. Unfortunately, that wasn’t her biggest worry. During her senior year, her law school had a controversial racial issue that prompted Kenyatta to send an audacious email to the student body, which she had also copied to the dean of the college.
He was not impressed by her bold action. He threatened a defamation suit, which led to a host of issues and problems that (fortunately) were worked out without a lawsuit. At the end of the year, Kenyatta walked to the Wailing Wall (the spot where grades were posted) to discover her grades were sufficient to graduate. She’d happily collected her degree and moved on to the next stage of her life without looking back.
Kenyatta had been set on getting a job in the tech industry, specifically one in Washington, D.C. She called the company every day, and her persistence paid off. The company offered her a job, so she picked up and moved to D.C. where she worked until the dot-com crash terminated both her job and the company. Fortunately, she wasn’t unemployed long before finding an opening at a small company called Blackboard. Although she was greatly overqualified, she had taken the position and quickly rose through the ranks as Blackboard became a leader in online platforms for education.
After five years, Kenyatta realized she needed a change and decided to leave the company. When she quit Blackboard, she didn’t have a plan, but she wasn’t worried. She knew her experience working for Blackboard would be one that opened a lot of doors in her future. Plus she was resourceful. She soon took a job with a different Internet company in Massachusetts exploring her true passion: genealogy.
Before long, she had become fascinated with the idea of tracing her roots and decided to make it the center of her professional life—she decided to start a company of her own.
In the process of looking for funding for her company, an investor gave her some valuable advice. Kenyatta was most interested in genealogy focused on slavery. The investors in Massachusetts weren’t interested in touching a sensitive issue like slavery and had told her she needed to move to California where the strong entrepreneurial environment might create more opportunities for her idea. Without hesitation, she packed up and moved across the
country to put her idea in motion.
It was a smart move. Kenyatta found a job with another education company in Los Angeles to support her financially while she grew her company.
* * *
The rest of Kenyatta’s story is unwritten. Where her company and the genealogy passion will take her is uncertain, but she is excited to find out. Despite the ups and downs of college, the short stints of unemployment, company changes, and multiple moves, Kenyatta has built a life that she greatly enjoys. It is filled with meaningful employment and opportunities to pursue her passion, helping others in the process. She may have gotten a few bumps and bruises along the way, but she has overcome the mistakes and close encounters with failure that have stood in her way.
That is an important takeaway for me, especially since growing up, I had perfect grades and rarely stepped out of line.
I explained to Kenyatta how our mindsets differed and asked how she had handled so many strikes against her. Her response will stick with me: “Everything is a learning experience.”
Each of her academic and personal struggles taught her something that made her stronger for the next challenge or stumbling block. Her experiences had made her resilient, and she knows she will never encounter a defeat that is too large for her to recover. It is this reservoir of resilience that makes her unstoppable and able to push boundaries.
Kenyatta’s story illustrates how to be comfortable with failure. This doesn’t mean trying to fail, or being okay with it, but rather accepting failure as a common ingredient in life—not the end of the world.
I realized that I had stayed in line and worked hard so external sources could validate me: good grades proved that I was smart; no major failures meant I was a success. But if I continued to build that life, I might never experience failure, never have the chance to build my own reservoir of resilience.
Kenyatta taught me the value of looking inward to find validation, based on self-awareness and past experiences. If you can do that, you can create confidence and resilience that fosters risk taking, because you know that failure doesn’t mean you aren’t good enough, it just means you need to get up and attack the challenge again.
Wanda Herndon
Starbucks in Seattle, Washington
Grande house coffee
Never underestimate the power of choice.
I spent every spring break in college visiting my brother, which meant a trip to Seattle was in store for my spring. Considering Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks and their caffeine revolution, it only made sense to have coffee with someone who was a part of that magic.
I found the perfect person: the former Senior Vice President of Global Communications for Starbucks
* * *
Wanda Herndon has an impressive resume. After graduating with a journalism degree from Michigan State, she realized journalism wasn’t the right route for her and decided to try her hand at Public Relations. Wanda set her sights on a successful corporate career and soon found herself advancing through various positions at Fortune 500 Companies, before ultimately ending up at Starbucks in Seattle.
After 11 years at Starbucks, Wanda left and started W Communications, a strategic communications consulting firm, where she takes on one client at a time. The setup keeps her working but leaves plenty of room for traveling and enjoying the life she worked so hard to create.
I found Wanda through a friend who met her in 2002 when she received the highly regarded Distinguished Alumni Award from Michigan State. When I looked into the award, I discovered it wasn’t the first of her accolades. She had been named one of the twelve leading African Americans in public relations by PR Week magazine and one of the “Top 100 Black Professionals in Corporate America” by Black Professionals magazine. She was also a frequent public speaker among her many other honors and activities.
Wanda spent the hour we shared together passing along advice garnered from years of experience in the working world—advice I needed to hear. Rita Meyer, Cup Two, had told me early on that young women need more positive female role models—more examples of bold women setting the bar high and reaching their goals. After talking with Wanda, I saw the value in Rita’s sentiment.
What I noticed very quickly was that Wanda didn’t make excuses. I admired her candid, no-nonsense, approach to life.
I asked her how she dealt with the stress of being in a senior-level position. She told me she’d always been a good multitasker and had developed better skills as she advanced through positions.
I asked her how she found confidence as a young professional in intimidating business situations. She said she worked hard and paid attention to what others were doing. If she ran into a tough project, she executed it to the best of her ability and then looked for ways to do better the next time.
I asked her how she kept moving forward when life got overwhelming. Her response was just to hang in there; tomorrow would bring a new day—maintaining patience, diligence, and perseverance was the key.
Wanda told me that there would always be people telling me that I’m not good enough and that I shouldn’t allow myself to add negative self-talk as it only adds fuel to their fire. She said I should be my biggest fan, cheerleader, and promoter, and I should stand up for myself and believe I could do it.
Her mentality was like a Nike commercial: Just Do It. And that was just the beginning. Wanda continued to share more insights, which culminated in this take-away: “Life is about choices.”
* * *
The situation you are in right now, whatever it might be, is the direct result of the choices you made in the past. Where you are next week, next year, or next decade will be the result of the choices you make today.
Life is not the product of the environment, the economy, the weather, what your friends are doing, or what your boss wants. Life is about what you choose to do under those circumstances.
Considering the next six months of my life would be full of choices, Wanda’s perspective was indispensable from a variety of reasons.
First, she reminded me that we all have to make decisions we don’t want to make: The fear of making the wrong choice sometimes incapacitates our decision-making abilities. We procrastinate; hoping someone or something will come along and make the choice for us. Wanda isn’t the type of woman who takes a passive stance when it comes to deciding which direction to take her life next; she has great confidence and is bold in her decision-making. If she makes the wrong decision, she quickly makes a correction.
Very few choices are permanent.
Her advice reminded me of my college search. I was so overwhelmed and worried about deciding on the right college. When my mom told me, “Megan, don’t let the choice create so much anxiety. If you pick a college and hate it, you can transfer.” Like magic, her advice lifted a weight off my shoulders.
* * *
After talking with Wanda, I realized the real mistake isn’t making the wrong choice; it is failing to change course once you realize a choice was wrong. This is what Wanda meant when she said people underestimated the control they have over their lives. All too often, people get stuck in a bad spot and don’t take action to get out.
Whether it is a dead-end job, an unhealthy relationship, financial trouble, poor health or something else, people fail to realize they have the power to make choices that can change the situation.
Maybe we’re afraid of how people will react to our actions. We get caught up thinking our behavior needs to fall in line with others’ expectations. But, as Wanda said, “Ignore the expectations others have for you. Create expectations for yourself and focus on those because if you reach your expectations, I guarantee you’ll be exceeding the expectations other have for you.”
* * *
When I walked away from my meeting with Wanda, I was overcome with a great feeling: a mix of energy and relief. Yes, I had a lot of decisions to make in the next six months—heck; I have a lot of decisions to make in the next 60 years! But talking to Wanda made those decisions seem
much less daunting.
The high expectations I have for myself will serve as a guidepost for my choices. And over time, I would develop the ability to make difficult revisions if necessary, growing more confident in my decision-making abilities along the way.
Jonathan Zittrain
Austin Convention Center at the SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas
Bottle of water
Don’t wait for an opportunity, create an opportunity.
I never expected a project that started in Michigan would lead to a meeting in Texas with a professor from Massachusetts that happened because of a conversation in California. But the world works in strange ways.
It all started when Jonathan Zittrain, an accomplished professor at Harvard Law School, came across a link to 52 Cups on a website and then mentioned the project on Twitter. I sent him a quick thank you for helping spread the word, and he said if I were ever in the Boston area we should get coffee.
A month later, long after the conversation had faded from memory, I was in San Francisco, visiting friends before traveling to the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas. I had met up with my friend Kelly, who mentioned her boss was speaking on a panel at SXSW. She told me to check it out because a guy named Jonathan Zittrain was on the panel and always gave a fascinating presentation.
I knew the name sounded familiar, but couldn’t put my finger on the reason. After going back through my email archives, I put two and two together: it was the law professor from Twitter! I sent him a message, and a week later, Jonathan and I were sitting in the crowded Austin convention center, having a great conversation. What are the odds?
* * *
Kelly was right; Jonathan is fascinating. To kick off our conversation, Jonathan gave me a condensed history of the Internet (he wrote The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop It). Jonathan has a great ability to explain intricate concepts in an interesting manner. Plus, he has great stories.
52 Cups of Coffee: Inspiring and insightful stories for navigating life’s uncertainties Page 11