Shining Light

At Lamprini, we are a business rooted in our values. We can teach someone to bake a cookie or make a coffee, but it is a much slower and intentional process of helping someone embody the values. It is a gift to me when I see our staff living out the values, embracing them as they embrace one another. 

Shubha has been with us for just a few months, but I have known him for years and he worked with me in the days before Lamprini. He knows me, he knows what I am about, he knows where we are headed. He gets “it”. “It” is hard to get. He is living out in community - showing respect - and he is shining light! 

As we have been preparing for the cafe equipment to arrive, Shubha, as head barista, has been telling Nisha he was going to teach her to make coffee on the new machine. She would roll her eyes and dismiss the notion. The machine arrived, and he got it up and running. On day two, he called over to her and said, “Come on, Nisha, time to make coffee.” 

She and I were sitting together across from the barista bar and she looked at me and said, “No ma’am. I’m afraid.” She and I talked through her fears, a story for another day, and as we were, Shubha came from around the counter and said, “Come on, Nisha, I’m with you.” She looked at me. She looked at him. Then said, “Okay!” Her tone reminded me of someone about to do a cannonball, off the high dive, into cold water. Not really wanting to, but resigned to doing it. She jumped in and made a splash! 

He was patient, he explained things carefully, and he watched her. She spent the rest of the day pulling espresso shots - because someone believed she was capable of pulling espresso shots! Because people were drinking the espresso she offered them.  She convinced herself the machine was too complicated, too expensive, it was going to break. Shubha was convinced otherwise. He believed in her before she could believe in herself. 

When surrounded by people who believe on behalf of others, the world has no bounds.