Commitment

The Magic Ingredient?

Commitment forms a relationship between where we currently stand and some point in the future, to which we are connected by our intentions. When we cast that commitment forward it shines light back into the interstitial space between its distant point and our current position. In doing so it lights up that void and reveals things we would not otherwise see and of those objects change. Problems become simply challenges and we are surprised notably less often.

In five years of operating Bethany’s Table I had offered limited commitment. I always wanted to bring the business to a point of semi-stasis so that Janet could achieve her restaurant ownership dream and I could go back to making money for a living. I’d recently had a number of exciting opportunities dangled in front of me but could never really get myself clear of the urgent trivialities of owning this business long enough to pursue them in earnest. Then, in January 2014, I decided to escape winter and take a motorcycle walkabout down to the southwest and Mexico.

Long hours by myself on the seat of that bike gazing at the soft desert horizon gave me time to think. I realized that I truly enjoy the business and needed to focus on coming down are we are. We had created wonderful business that had the ability to nourish us spiritually as well as economically. I came back invigorated to a building under construction, wrapped in a black shroud, and a bedroom (on the third floor above the restaurant) where carpenters began hammering on the wall at 7:30 most mornings. I knew we wanted to stay in the business but felt pretty ambivalent about the location.

It was a dark time in the Village. We made an offer to rent the Starbucks space across the way, as we knew the neighborhood wanted a pizza place. That full-price bid was flatly rejected and the when the paltry rent relief offer attributable to five months of scaffolding and black webbing for a storefront added injury to insult we started looking around. The Timberland Town Center was under construction and we decided to stake a claim. We were ready to take our business elsewhere.

Word got out of our plans and many of our customers freely expressed their disappointment. We had become a fixture in the biography of so many families. They “owned” us and were none too happy that we might pull up their stake. We were moved. Still, the Timberland site was just too good of an opportunity. So we decided to move… and to stay. Bethany’s Table would remain in the Village and The Table would open at Timberland. We signed new 10-year leases for both locations.

Our plan was overly optimistic and the timing stretched out. We wanted to be open at Timberland first in February, then in May, and now we are stretched out until July. And even that goal is being tortured, as our estimate of the cost to build the new spot was also optimistic. First it was $700,000, then it was $800,00, now – and it’s all bid out so we are pretty sure this will hold – it is going to cost $1 million. We need to get going now but are still short on funds. We had put together a funding plan that allowed our customers to participate as owners but … well that’s another story.

Next: Opportunity Knocks