Chapter 15 Seeing Coffee Through Different Eyes

After FAEMA, I worked briefly at Douwe Egberts. There I came to know the coffee world from another perspective and, in my spare time, began experimenting with prefilled paper coffee filters and a simple prototype. My idea was not developed further at the time, but it confirmed something that had always been part of me: I did not want merely to sell; I wanted to understand how something could be improved.↗

Later, Mokafina and Brasilia espresso machines also crossed my path. They were part of my professional development, but were never the true center of my life. More important were the people I met, my responsibility for my family, and the lessons each new step taught me.↗

I discovered that ideas require courage, but also realism. Not every experiment becomes a success, and not every door remains open. Yet no attempt ever lost all its value for me: each experience brought me closer to the entrepreneur and the person I would later become.↗