Starbucked

Recently I read a book on Starbucks called "Starbucked" by author Taylor Clark. The book tells about how Starbucks started out to be a small coffee shop and finally becoming the most popular coffee shop all around the world. The book also tells about what strategy plans and risks Starbucks took in order to achieve what they have achieved today. I remember one particular story about how Starbucks solved their business problem by coming up with an at first seemed crazy but later turned out to be an amazing and successful plan. During the early days of Starbucks, there was once where they were broke and they still had their rent to pay. So, the boss came up with an ingenious idea. Guess what he did? he actually opened up another Starbucks coffee house just directly opposite the original coffee house. People would think, "is he crazy?". But he did this with a motive. Why did he open 2 Starbucks coffee houses directly opposite each other? 1st reason was to provide convenience to their customers. For example, people traveling from this side of the street can conveniently visit the coffee house at that side while customers traveling from the other side of the street can visit the other. 2nd reason was to attract different kinds of customers. the 1st coffee house seemed to attract high class customers and hence that coffee house' atmosphere was more professional looking, while the other was to attract more casual customers, that coffee house was build in a very comfortable fashion where people can sit down, enjoy their coffee and socialize. I feel that this is a very ingenious idea that helped propelled Starbucks to stardom. This move by Starbucks have given me the inspiration to take risks and believe in myself in whatever I do.