The Demand Was Just Too Big

The customer in front of me kept asking the barista about their café’s expansion. One tiny corner shop had turned into a three-room venue already, replete with a bakery and a space to give classes. Now, they had opened another, even bigger location elsewhere in town. How did they do it? All the barista could do was shrug: “Beats me. It’s such a saturated market. But the demand was just too big.”

Usually, cafés in Munich don’t expand. If anything, they shut down. But this one, whether for its vibe, great cinnamon rolls, arguably excellent coffee, or all of those factors combined, is thriving. They didn’t have a master plan when they opened—clearly: It was in the middle of the pandemic. They just showed up, made the best coffee they could, and four years later, here we are.

Writing a bestseller, landing your dream job, raising a fully self-sufficient human—all of these are impractical, yet none impossible. In fact, we’re doing the impossible every day, so why not work our magic on the dreams we truly care about? It might go better than we expect, and perhaps, one day soon, the demand will be so big, we’ll have to open a second shop.