Positive Reinforcement

I'm drinking up the last of my first-flush Darjeeling from last year, and today I'm enjoying the wonderful one from Tindharia Estate that I bought from Upton Tea Imports (http://www.uptontea.com/ ). Fabulously fruity aroma with winey undertones, and a soft, almost peach-like flavor and very little astringency. (See, I'm practicing those descriptive words.) It's kind of like drinking wine, with none of the aftereffects.

As I drink my lovely "Champagne of teas", I've been smiling over all the positive reinforcement I've been getting on my tea shop plans. I've been to 2 or 3 meetings and a networking happy hour in the past few days, where I was introducing myself to people and telling them of my plan to open a tea shop. The overwhelming reaction was "Oh, that sounds great!" At one large meeting where I stood up and introduced myself to about 100 people, there was a collective "Oooohhhh" from the room when I said I was planning to open a tea shop.

I also got very good reactions to my proposed business name, so I'm feeling very good about that right now, too. I'm actually a little surprised that I've been getting such an overwhelmingly positive reaction when I talk about my plans--everyone is interested, everyone has a good experience with tea to relate, and everyone seems to think that there is a need in the market for this business. No one has said, "That will be hard to do with the economy the way it is."

One of the meetings I attended was a discussion of what it takes to be an entrepreneur and get your business going, and one of the things the presenter said really hit home with me. He said that when he is considering whether to invest in a business, he wants to know that the person who is asking for the money is totally committed to making their idea succeed. He wants to see that they have invested in themselves before he's willing to invest his money.

The reason this hit home with me is that even though I have a vision for my tea shop, and feel that there is a need to be filled with it, I've also been a little hesitant to throw everything I have into it, because I'm afraid it won't succeed and I'll be left destitute. The idea of starting all over again in my forties is NOT a pleasant one, believe me.

However, as the Cowardly Lion once said, "I DO believe, I DO believe, I DO believe"...in my idea. So even as I continue to look for a full-time job, I'm going to be doing a lot of soul-searching and even more research to figure out how I can make my tea shop dream a reality.

Because if my idea is hitting such a chord with most of the people I've spoken to about it, I think the time may be right to move forward with it, the economy notwithstanding. So I'll let my lovely Darjeeling tea help me ruminate on this, and try to come up with a path forward. Stay tuned!