Start-Up At The Bean Affected By Poor Economy

In honor of the 45th anniversary of the Brentwood-founded Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, we have invited Burt Lear to blog from his office which he sets up daily inside the [LOCATION REDACTED] CBTL. –Ed.

September 14

Depressed due to poor start-up showing at [LOCATION REDACTED] CBTL. Economic downturn affecting all areas of life. Accidentally pasted entire paragraph of data into email address window. What would happen if I hit send? Would the email reach some genie or a mailer daemon? Metaphor here, something about risk. Someone is waiting for this kind of accidental connection right here at the Bean. That person has to be me.

September 15

Business model still alive but sales have simply not happened yet. Writing a treatise, “Start-Up At The Bean Affected By Poor Economy”, including notes on the high price of gas and the necessity to buy gold. Drinking coffee now to save money on office rent. What am I not doing? Possibilities have to be in the store, in the Bean, in the ambiance, the people. Even in the Paul-Giamatti-as-John-Adams old man who complained about me. What is his problem!

September 16

Had to let personal assistant go. Cant afford her, plus difficult to sync schedules. CBTL offers 63 cent tea. Take small comfort in it — at least I can afford that. Sipped tea, returned to initial ideas. How can I make $70,000/mo at the CBTL! Staring me in the face and I cannot see it.

September 17

Modeling agency? Pulchritude consistently very high. Eh. Dislike misogynistic underpinnings. Modeling agency not the shortest path to victory. The Bean is a safe place, almost like a Montessori. Considered something deep today, lark in movie “21,” Monty Hall puzzle in which three doors are shown on “Let’s Make A Deal” and contestant picks one, but Monty Hall reveals one of the other doors and thus removes it from consideration. Counterintuitive odds actually double for switching doors, at least according to Andy Bloch (on whom one of “21″ blackjack characters is based. Famous Poker Player now.) If I eliminate one of the choices before me because I know it’s the wrong one, I will in fact double my chances of making a good choice by switching choices. Fallacious reasoning. Assumes I have three and only three choices and could rule out one with impunity.

I need another coffee. No. An iced blended drink. No. Yes.