Has this ever happened to you? You are thinking one day that what the world needs is a new widget, or mouse trap, or whatever. Before you even get around to developing a business plan, somebody Elsi has beaten you to the punch. This is what happened to me a couple of times. Once it was taco stands, and once it was coffee shop franchises. You guessed it, I thought of both of those things first, but somebody else stole my ideas and started Taco Bell and Starbucks before I had a chance to . Well, they actually couldn't steal my ideas since I never did anything but think about them. Don't let this happen to you. If you have a great idea, get out there and do something about it. If you don't do something about it today, somebody else will.

Whether you love or hate Starbucks coffee, or you stay home and make coffee and espresso in your own coffee maker, you have to admit it is successful. Actually the only ones who hate Starbucks are their competitors, and a couple of old fashioned folks, like my father. I bring my father into this because he hates Starbucks. It has very little to do with coffee and everything to do with patriotism. You see, my father will not drink a cup of Starbucks coffee because he feels they do not support our troops. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, of course, but you would think a position such as this would hurt their sales, regardless of the fact that they are the largest coffee shop chain in the country. What makes it surprising is that most of middle America is staunch in not supporting companies that do not support our troops. The feeling in the heartland goes something like this: "If you want to live here and enjoy the freedom our soldiers have fought for, you sure as heck better support our soldiers who gave it to you in the first place".

Anyway, I would like to be rich, but I would like to find a way to do this without working too hard. So I figure if I went back to my original idea of a coffee shop chain, I could put Starbuck's out of business. Don't a lot of people feel like my father and want to buy their coffee from a company that supports America and its troops.