Sunday

I have touched on it lately, but I must touch again. This particular job we have at work requires a lot of hours of labor with various involved stages, i.e. cutting bags of green coffee open and weighing the coffee, loading it into the top of the roaster, roasting it, cooling it(while keeping the previous steps flowing in cycle), weighing the roasted coffee, bagging the coffee, applying a tin tie, folding it and palletizing it. We are working at most hours of the day including weekends. It's a rewarding job, in that we get to work hard and see the physical fruit of our labor. The pleasure I get from it is that of sweeping a floor. Sweep, done; so unlike corporate life can be. I feel healthy to be sweeping floors, getting fit from humping bags of coffee around, and smelling like roasted coffee smoke. Getting back to what I enjoy doing is satisfying. It is not my ideal long term job, but it is sustainable.

When I refer to 'we' above, I refer to the fantastic crew of people I work with. Screwballs we all are to a degree and from a certain perspective. I am seeking an environment in which to work where all share the same goal and act with honor and respect towards each other and the brand for which we toil. All aspects of the business must be processed internally and either changed to suit the culture or assimilated by professional compromise. Of course, compromises must be made to change a small business culture. Often, the compromised ground can be regained in time if it is worthy of fighting for. That is, is it or can it be a viable business part? If so, how(much)? Or is it a point of soul for the brand? In which case, that must come from within the team, and cannot be stated before hand. Grow it on your own. More on this later.

Much love to all of you. Keep thinking.