Continual Improvement

When I was up in Kansas City last summer for my grandfather’s 90th birthday, I knew I needed some good coffee. I asked around on Twitter, and got a recommendation from a trusted friend - Second Best Coffee.

Heading to @2bckc on the recommendation of @Jeremy_Danner. I trust his beer recommendations, and I expect his coffee recs are good, too.

— al (@alanbush) August 19, 2016

They absolutely did not disappoint. Second Best Coffee has a fun little shop, featuring KC’s first Slayer espresso machine. They roast some great coffee, and feature guest roasters frequently. The staff was friendly, and the coffee was delicious. But one thing stuck out more than the atmosphere and the coffee: Second Best’s commitment to coffee excellence through continual improvement. I’ll let the copywriters at Second Best sum it up for you:

“Second Best Coffee, at its core, is a commitment to relentless improvement. Coffee is our passion, and we cannot imagine a day where we do not learn something new. We tinker and talk, research and read; absorbing anything and everything we can. Whether we’re excited about the intricacies of coffee production in Costa Rica, working on a new roast profile, or tweaking our extraction parameters, we are constantly figuring out ways to translate new knowledge into better daily practices. Second Best is not a self-deprecation, but a way for us to acknowledge and pledge that tomorrow’s coffee will clearly make today’s Second Best.”

This instantly hit home with me as something I respect and want to incorporate into my life and outlook. I’ve always noticed opportunities to improve, and have been fortunate enough to have brought some of those improvements to reality.

“Second Best” is a great reminder that - no matter how yesterday went down - we can always make today better than yesterday. It’s both a comfort, and a challenge. What are you doing to make sure that every day is better than the last?

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