Good Writing and (About) Starbucks
Via Seth Godin, P.J. O’Rourke in the NYT
O’Rourke is reviewing Starbucked by Taylor Clark. Here’s a snippet from the review:
But Clark is too hep and knowing and maybe a bit too caffeinated to listen to his own principal source. Instead, he gives us an amusing, scattershot portrait of the monomaniacal Schultz that leaves us with an impression that, yes, here is a fellow who could sell whaleburgers at a Sierra Club picnic. But how?
Clark talks a lot about the determination, drive and persistence of the Starbucks Corporation. But if those were the sole qualities of success, toddlers would rule the world. Clark makes much of Starbucks’s discovery that it could put one store close to another and both could thrive. But you can line a street with fire hydrants and dogs will use them all; that’s not necessarily a recipe for wealth, especially if you try to charge the dogs.
All entrepreneurs (or would-be entrepreneurs) should print out the second paragraph and tape it to the wall.
(I’m a huge fan of P.J. O’Rourke’s writing. He’s scathingly funny, spares nobody, and makes excellent points.)
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