This chronicle is a thank note to people who I consider mentors in life and professional matters. They have been fishing buddies and the inspiration to achieve the unbelievable. It is also the way to keep alive this memoir and celebrate what we accomplished as a team. I like coming back to these stories from time to time when in need of inspiration.
I never planned to end up telling this story and connecting the dots down the road. However, thanks to life circumstances and a personal touch, I ended up on board of projects that one would have dreamed of in the global trade of coffee.
The coffee business as every single industry and project around the world is about human connections and relationships. I did not know this magic and this is the story how I unlocked that tool that is a boost to professional life but also to personal stuff. Relationships (and their quality) represent the base of everything. And also, relationships to be good require authenticity on our side, showing us as we are and less formal than we think. At the end, we are all humans with similar basic needs.
The process of building authentic relationships is a journey of self discovery since through it you are able to confirm your style, charm and unique value.
This coffee memoir starts in 2020. I had no idea of the beautiful network of companies and people that coexist behind a cup of coffee. Day after day I took different training and workshops around coffee in terms of growing, roasting, extraction and many other things up to cupping. After a year in the woods, it was time to be on the field. And I was a man on a mission: sale as much as I can and target the largest clients you could ever imagined.
That feeling of taking a suitcase and start knocking doors around the globe like a textiles merchant is simply beautiful to me and it has happened with flowers and coffee through my life. I felt like that, and my dreaming soul finds fantasy on thinking of those merchants taking boats in and out Asia, meeting new people along the way (and making friends), trying new food, spices, visiting new places, writing letters to their loved ones while overseas and thinking of new business opportunities all the time. To me, it is still like that.
Summer day, on the north eastern part of the US, remote location, visiting a dairy company, we met who would become along the years into a business partner, a mentor and a friend. This gentleman (from now on Mr T), 30 years older than me, was the gate to a coffee dream we had. By that time, I did not know of his key role, experience and network of contacts, however, as any conversation with someone new, we made it with charm and kindness. When it comes to business conversations, the feeling of hospitality is important since making a comfort environment will encourage people to share who they are and open their ideas with gusto.
The conversations with Mr T will continue through the following years in different locations while visiting food facilities, over dinners and trade shows. Conversations that were not all the time around business but also about life itself. One day, over dinner in a small town in Illinois, the idea of “hunting” a specific client crossed our minds. I still remember the cozy diner, a glass of red wine, the food and the team at the table. Mr T, humble, an attentive listener, cautiously optimistic liked the idea and gave his opinion. That evening, by the end of dinner and gently smiling I told him: this is our big tuna, let’s go fishing.
Days, weeks, months and years passed and everytime we would talk about our tuna. Sometimes the conclussion was “it is not the right time”, “it is complicated”, “let’s wait a bit longer”. Patience was needed but a positive vibe was always there and from time to time we would discuss real fishing adventures.
Three years passed. Three years of discipline, constant thinking, building trust, knowing each other, emails with ideas and many phone conversations over the weekend when we gossiped about the coffee world, stakeholders, clients and politics. Conversations that taught me a lot on business practices, life, long term vision and patience. Conversations that helped me discovering that business are not made through an email or a meeting, but through relationships. We talked life as well, we even talked Garcia Marquez. All the diversity around this business relationship was nourishing the thinking process of how to catch the tuna.
These three years materialized in a very specific moment: Christmas. I got the call from Mr T and he just said “Get ready, it’s fishing time. We have one shot so we can’t miss”. Christmas eve passed and next day we were on a mission. Tuna was at sight. We teamed up with the best of the best and started working on our proposal.
At the same time, through these three years of work, we built relationships with stakeholders around the tuna so we had eyes in different areas and were able to test the water. This would prove key in the months to come.
By January, the proposal was sent but the tuna was gone from sight. Timing was tricky and the coffee world was living a turmoil around prices, tariffs and output. We had to patiently wait, blind if the proposal was good or not, if we missed or not. We simply had to wait.
Days were passing by, then weeks, and then we made the call of flying in just to check the status of things. I took my boss along and made the bet that we had to travel to secure the project with the argument that important things are normally talked over dinner. It went well, we sensed we were on track somehow but still not 100% sure.
Then, by June (five months laters), on a Thursday afternoon we got notice that the tuna bit and liked. It was hard to believe. Two weeks later, during the wee hours we got formal confirmation that the tuna was ours!
Trying to put the level of excitment in words is a challenge. But that day, leaving the office as a regular day, I knew internally that we have accomplished the mission we signed up for on day one. We changed the course of this coffee business and re discovered a way of doing business: through people, relationships, kindess and a long term vision. We knew that it was not a sprint but a marathon so the energy had to be handled in different paces.
To my mentors, thank you for guiding and trusting. To Mr T, new fishing adventures are to come! To my colleagues, congratulations. To those who make things happen every single day, remember that the best Tuna is a heart filled with the job well done.
Life is about connections, relationships well built and conversations over dinner. In this fast pace and tech based world, the key to great things is still kindness. That’s the waythrough.
David Perez 