What’s interesting about this photo? How about the fact that this company is paying top San Francisco real estate dollar to sell bargain books, and all the while offering free wifi (where customers are capable of ordering the same bargain books cheaper from Amazon!)? What’s interesting is that they remained in business for so long operating with this as a business model. Truly I am saddened at the loss of a local book store.

I am not saddened at the loss of a big chain style store that put the local bookstore out of business. But then look what happened: Borders tried to be everything to everybody. They added in a Seattle’s Best coffee shop to be “cafe like.” But the plastic chairs, stale coffee, cheap snacks, and smile-less service didn’t make it a neighborhood coffee shop anything like Philz (across the street). And offering cheapo books could never compete with Amazon. And offering free wifi….well where’s the business in that?

I am really amazed that a company with (at one time) so much resources and power would just throw ideas at the wall never realizing that the more they threw, the less special of a business they’d become. Until now…and they are closing. I am sad because I really did like to go through there to brainstorm, browse, and, sadly never buy. Instead I would make my purchases either from Amazon, when I knew exactly what I wanted, or, from my favorite awsome local San Francisco bookstores: Christopher’s, and Green Apple books. I did mention to the manager as I was leaving that their closing was really sad and an interesting sign of the times. I also offered her an idea that I would pay real money for: 

Why not make the space really inviting, comfortable, and cool, and charge customers an entrance fee – and then just do “print on demand.” Supposedly those machines go for just $50,000, and can print and bind any pdf book! And, if the space was really cool, and comfy, and had great lighting, then I and others would happily pay an admission fee just to hang out. The manager just smiled and shrugged her shoulders. Oh well. 

One of the funniest ironies about technology and improvement is that as we make giant technological leaps ever day, and get ever more “connected,” we are at the same time we are also getting more disconnected from each other and the world. Author Bill McKibbons wrote recently in Mother Jones Magazine that ever since 1956, the “Happiness Index” of Americans has been going down. How can this be, amidst an ever improving “standard of living,” that we are getting progressively unhappy?

We are born and we do a bunch of stuff and then we die. The stuff we do between birth and death is actually just a whole bunch of stories, and business is one outlet of those stories. How we interact with each other and our environment is the story of business.

At the end of the day at Samovar our business is not how much money we made or lost, not what teas were bought or sold, not which employees showed up for work. No, at the end of the day at Samovar, when the last scones have been sold, and the last pot of tea brewed, the floor cleaned, and the lights turned off, at the end of that day all that is left is just a bunch of stories. And the stories are absolutely fascinating. That is business.

The Samovar Tea Lounge Team

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

— John Quincy Adams quotes (American 6th US President (1825-29), eldest son of John Adams, 2nd US president. 1767-1848)

In business and in life, we have the profound potential to influence other people, leaving in the wake of our life reverberating actions that can forever positively influence others. Call it what you will: Karma, Cause and Effect, What-Goes-Around-Comes-Around, etc. Whether you’re a supermarket bagger, or a Fortune-500 CEO, the fact is that each and every one of us has an impact on the world and other people, to make a huge and lasting difference. And that’s great – because what else is there really, than love? When it comes right down to it, isn’t what really matters most expressing and experiencing love? For me, love starts with leadership, amongst friends, family, and even in work.