I'm Not Serving You Coffee - Crisis Identity Edition

When you’re two weeks into running a brand‑new business, everything feels urgent. Every question from a customer feels like a clue, every comment feels like a direction, and every raised eyebrow feels like a sign you should be doing something differently. You’re still tender, still figuring out who you are, while putting on a smile that says, "I know what I'm doing."

So when a customer walked into my mostly produce‑and‑some baked‑goods shop and asked, “Do you sell coffee?” I didn’t hear that question.

I heard:

“Aren’t you supposed to be a coffee shop?”

Never mind that there was a 76 gas station literally down the street brewing fresh coffee every 30 minutes. Never mind that I had zero equipment. Never mind that I had no plan.

My brain said, We must serve coffee immediately.

Which is how I ended up at a restaurant supply store, staring at a shelf of shiny coffee dispensers — the only thing my tiny two‑week‑old budget could handle. These slow pump-action coffee dispensers didn’t brew coffee, but they could hold coffee, and apparently that was enough for me to believe I was on the brink of becoming a barista.

So I bought two.

I brought them back to the shop, set them proudly on a shelf, and waited for my new coffee‑selling era to begin.

It did not.

Not once did I fill them.

Not once did I brew anything.

Not once did a customer return asking for coffee.

Meanwhile, the 76 down the street kept brewing up hazelnut, French vanilla, dark roast — basically running a full‑service coffee empire while I stared at two empty dispensers like, What exactly was the plan here?

Weeks passed. Then months. Then years. The dispensers became stainless‑steel décor — a quiet reminder that I had briefly lost my mind because one customer was curious.

Eventually, I sold them at a loss – at the local flea market, no less. Of course I did. Nothing says “growth” like paying money to undo a decision you made in a panic.

But honestly? I can laugh about it now. Because here’s what finally stuck:

If there’s a lesson here, it’s this: don’t let one customer question talk you into an identity crisis. Otherwise, you’ll end up buying coffee dispensers like you’re opening a café when all you really wanted to do was sell sweet potatoes.

Today, I know who I am.  I know what my business is. And I know — with full confidence — that I’m not serving you coffee.

But I will smile every time I remember the two shiny pump-action coffee dispensers that tried to convince me otherwise.