Is your business fueled by coffee or tea? These two drinks provide very different kinds of energy. Long-term and short-term strategic planning, in order to be successful, should be built on BOTH types, and your business should make the goal to find a marketing company in Orange County that knows the difference.
How much weight can we put behind the distinction between coffee people and tea people? Somewhere right now a coffee person is sitting at a table with a disposable cup in hand, pounding out a novel, or poring over a legal brief, or trading stocks at 5 am with purpose and authority. Likewise, somewhere right now, a tea person is sipping their drink, looking out a window, or else taking a break from their busy day to reflect mindfully, or else sitting with a friend and talking with intention about important things.
These drinks are different, but how?
The Benefits
People argue and speculate over the potential health benefits—or harms—of coffee, but at the end of the day, the main reason people drink coffee is for the short-term caffeine boost.
On the other hand, teas, depending on the type, have been shown to have a ton of benefits. Tea can prevent cancer, heart disease, boost your immune system, help your teeth and bones, in addition to containing vitamins and minerals. Tea is good for you over the long term.
Does that mean we should all kick the coffee and start drinking more tea? Let’s not be too hasty.
Coffee hits hard
Startups are fueled by coffee for one reason: startups need coffee. When you’re starting from scratch, it can feel like the only thing in the world that is on your side is the coffee. It connects with you, paves a way forward, puts the stepping stones in place to get you to the next level.
Startups don’t need tea. For startups, there’s no time or reason to sit by the window and reflect. You’re not enjoying the ride, and you’re not guarding yourself in the future from potential hazards—the hazards are now, and you need coffee to get around them.
Luckily for your mental health, this exciting phase of coffee-fueled all-nighters must inevitably come to an end, and this is where startups can fail hard. That rampant growth will taper off, and normalize, and the last thing you should do at that point is double up on espresso shots to keep pushing forward. Endless powerful actions, without regard for the overall structure, will always end in ruin.
This is the time for tea. Tea is inward energy, as opposed to coffee’s outward energy. Coffee presses you forward to find your place in the world; tea presses you inward to help you find yourself. For the startup, it’s essential to recognize when that “Tea time” has come.
If it wasn’t apparent, I’m not just talking about which drinks to stock your break room with. Your organization needs coffee if it needs a boost: hard-hitting energy to meet the deadlines, find investors, and seek people, places, and things that will bring success. Your organization needs tea if it needs to take stock, think about future stability, address inner needs in a more general, or long-term way.
In the end, coffee and tea are so different because of how we consume them, and what we consume them for. It’s much more common to hear people say that they need a coffee, than it is to say that they need a tea. Coffee is instant, short-term, and high-burn. Tea’s benefits are gradual, pervasive, and come with time.
When we’re honest, that’s why coffee is more addictive, too. Its benefits are instant, but ultimately short-lived. Likewise, we can become addicted to action—decisive, coffee-fueled action—for the feeling of power that it gives us. But actions themselves are temporary. The long-term benefits of reflection and inner knowledge are needed to give balance. This goes for the leaders of your organization, and anyone your organization works with, from help with long-term and short-term strategic planning, to using a marketing company in Orange County.
Coffee person? Tea person? Drink both. Drink them regularly. But be sure to drink them at the right time.