This. A Tim Hortons coffee. Seriously. And it’s not because I like their coffee — I really don’t. But, hands down, it’s been my best investment ever. Let me explain.
Almost exactly four years ago today, I accepted a position at a company I was doing freelance work for. It was an entry-level job, but I had connections inside and the plan was to get my foot in the door so I could climb the ladder quickly.
The actual job, however, was mind-boggingly useless and redundant. It was some sort of “marketing coordinator” position where an entire department was, in fact, paid and kept in place to forward emails from the sales team to other departments. We were not producing anything, we were not getting anything done ourselves. Just forwarding emails.
The team I was in was comprised of various people, led by an arrogant and incompetent girl who got promoted to a manager just because she had been there for so long.
I’m not really into bad-mouthing ex-bosses or complaining about previous jobs. But trust me, this was spectacularly meaningless. I felt unproductive and it was like being in a kindergarten. It was a really, really bad professional experience.
In fact, I stayed there just under three months.
However — I’m getting to the coffee soon, I promise — I met an amazing girl there. On my first day, when I was being introduced to everybody, I spotted her immediately. A beautiful, dark-haired Italian. She looked sophisticated but humble, fun, polite, a bit reserved*. And she had that lovely Italian accent, both in French and in English.
She became my only motivation to wake up and go to work every day. Because, frankly, if it wasn’t for her, I would have quit that job right away.
Every day, I was trying to talk to her a bit more, to learn about her, to make her laugh. Almost every morning, I would bring her the coffee she liked from Tim Hortons. We started talking more and more.
I learned she was going through tough times with her then-boyfriend, and they eventually broke up. So I asked her out. We saw each other a couple of times, nothing serious, not an official date. She seemed to show some interest, but she wasn’t ready yet for another relationship — which is perfectly reasonable.
One day, after almost three months there, I left the company. I was extremely sad I wouldn’t see her every day anymore. I didn’t really know what to do next, how we could keep in touch, or even if she actually wanted to keep in touch at all.
So the next morning, I brought her one last Tim Hortons coffee.
I was waiting for her in the parking lot. When I saw her car arrive, I brought her the coffee, and told her how much I would miss her.
We kissed for the first time.
We are now married and we have a wonderful son (more to come). We are doing business and traveling together. We just bought another house last weekend and we’re traveling to Italy (again) in a few days.
That amazing relationship literally started with a cup of Tim Hortons coffee. I got my money’s worth, and much, much more!