December 1
Just finished reading The Republic of Tea (whose tea I have never seen or tasted but I hear has a big market presence on the West Coast). The book chronicles the growth of the company from its beginning as a shared idea between two strangers who meet when sharing a car to the airport, Mel Ziegler and Bill Rosenzweig, to the exchange of countless faxes, letters and phone calls that eventually lead to the establishment of a new company, The Republic of Tea.The names and titles that the central figures in the book use to address one another are definitely kooky - Bill is dubbed the Minister of Progress while Mel and his wife Patricia are named the Minister of Leaves and Minister of Enchantment. And the number of times terms like “zen”, “tea mind” and “chinese clay teapots” come up can get a bit ridiculous. But look past those things - the book does have important reminders for how to start a business. Mel and Patricia Ziegler have some wisdom to share, which is a complete understatement as they are co-founders of the clothing empire Banana Republic. At the time of their meeting with Bill, they had already stepped away from the business limelight and the book shows how Mel is willing to coach Bill through the process of creating a tea company, from the sidelines. We can all relate to the initial excitement of coming up with a great idea and imagining how it will bring great fame and fortune - and that’s what happens in the first half of the book. Philosophies, mission statements, packaging designs, store displays, tea names, potential retailers, how The Republic of Tea will change the world — these dreamy details occupy the minds of Bill and the Zieglers. But an idea doesn’t become something just from coming up with great plans, and this is where the main message of the book (in my opinion) lies. 11 days into obsessing over the ideas, there is a personal journal entry by Mel expressing his slight concern that Bill has not carried out any concrete steps to get things under way. Bill, on his end, is concerned that Mel seems reluctant to commit to becoming a part of this new company and is uncertain how to go about doing things on his own. These concerns increase steadily and cause an end in correspondence between the two that does not resume until a whole year later. The private journal entries by Mel and Bill are where the good stuff lies — the fears, criticisms and honest thoughts that anyone starting a new business thinks about. The happy ending (or beginning) comes when a number of events coincide and Bill finds himself jobless (no more excuses about having no time) with a great business plan on his hands and realizes its time to take the plunge. The latter 1/4 of the book documents the business plans and strategies that the co-founders came up with as they worked with attorneys, suppliers, etc to set up The Republic of Tea. While it’s not clear which of these plans and strategies were the actual ones that got the company on its feet and growing to where it is today, the templates are definitely informative for anyone working on similar distribution-type businesses. Too much to go into detail here, but get the book and read those parts if you’re looking for a basic model to follow.When reading the book, Mel’s thoughts were the ones I was most interested in, obviously, because he did after all build one of the most powerful clothing empires we know of. Here are a few of his quotes that really stuck with me: “Taking action, not talk about taking action, is the one absolute requirement to start a business. You check your instincts, you check your information, you check the known risks against the anticipated rewards as best you can in an uncertain world, and you plunge. You take action.” (pg. 166) “Be the customer, not the seller. Approach business from the standpoint of the customers’ needs, not yours. And all else will follow. … By asking the wrong questions you will get the wrong answers. It’s not “Do our customers like to read, travel, cook, retreat, laugh, reflect, etc?” That is approaching it as if the customer is not you.” (pg. 183) Mel explains a simple equation, “energy = reward”, to evaluate whether an idea is worth working on: “Money is the energy of business. Sooner of later if it doesn’t start to flow, the idea is going to sputter and quit on you.” (pg. 188) It’s not like he’s saying anything we haven’t heard before, but they are great reminders that are really useful to keep in mind. Disregard the fact that I don’t like the panda-themed design of the company’s children’s tea, the people behind The Republic of Tea really know how to come up with ideas and make a lot of money with them.

Just finished reading The Republic of Tea (whose tea I have never seen or tasted but I hear has a big market presence on the West Coast). The book chronicles the growth of the company from its beginning as a shared idea between two strangers who meet when sharing a car to the airport, Mel Ziegler and Bill Rosenzweig, to the exchange of countless faxes, letters and phone calls that eventually lead to the establishment of a new company, The Republic of Tea.

The names and titles that the central figures in the book use to address one another are definitely kooky - Bill is dubbed the Minister of Progress while Mel and his wife Patricia are named the Minister of Leaves and Minister of Enchantment. And the number of times terms like “zen”, “tea mind” and “chinese clay teapots” come up can get a bit ridiculous. But look past those things - the book does have important reminders for how to start a business. Mel and Patricia Ziegler have some wisdom to share, which is a complete understatement as they are co-founders of the clothing empire Banana Republic. At the time of their meeting with Bill, they had already stepped away from the business limelight and the book shows how Mel is willing to coach Bill through the process of creating a tea company, from the sidelines.

We can all relate to the initial excitement of coming up with a great idea and imagining how it will bring great fame and fortune - and that’s what happens in the first half of the book. Philosophies, mission statements, packaging designs, store displays, tea names, potential retailers, how The Republic of Tea will change the world — these dreamy details occupy the minds of Bill and the Zieglers.

But an idea doesn’t become something just from coming up with great plans, and this is where the main message of the book (in my opinion) lies. 11 days into obsessing over the ideas, there is a personal journal entry by Mel expressing his slight concern that Bill has not carried out any concrete steps to get things under way. Bill, on his end, is concerned that Mel seems reluctant to commit to becoming a part of this new company and is uncertain how to go about doing things on his own. These concerns increase steadily and cause an end in correspondence between the two that does not resume until a whole year later. The private journal entries by Mel and Bill are where the good stuff lies — the fears, criticisms and honest thoughts that anyone starting a new business thinks about.

The happy ending (or beginning) comes when a number of events coincide and Bill finds himself jobless (no more excuses about having no time) with a great business plan on his hands and realizes its time to take the plunge. The latter 1/4 of the book documents the business plans and strategies that the co-founders came up with as they worked with attorneys, suppliers, etc to set up The Republic of Tea. While it’s not clear which of these plans and strategies were the actual ones that got the company on its feet and growing to where it is today, the templates are definitely informative for anyone working on similar distribution-type businesses. Too much to go into detail here, but get the book and read those parts if you’re looking for a basic model to follow.

When reading the book, Mel’s thoughts were the ones I was most interested in, obviously, because he did after all build one of the most powerful clothing empires we know of. Here are a few of his quotes that really stuck with me:

“Taking action, not talk about taking action, is the one absolute requirement to start a business. You check your instincts, you check your information, you check the known risks against the anticipated rewards as best you can in an uncertain world, and you plunge. You take action.” (pg. 166)
“Be the customer, not the seller. Approach business from the standpoint of the customers’ needs, not yours. And all else will follow. … By asking the wrong questions you will get the wrong answers. It’s not “Do our customers like to read, travel, cook, retreat, laugh, reflect, etc?” That is approaching it as if the customer is not you.” (pg. 183)
Mel explains a simple equation, “energy = reward”, to evaluate whether an idea is worth working on: “Money is the energy of business. Sooner of later if it doesn’t start to flow, the idea is going to sputter and quit on you.” (pg. 188)


It’s not like he’s saying anything we haven’t heard before, but they are great reminders that are really useful to keep in mind. Disregard the fact that I don’t like the panda-themed design of the company’s children’s tea, the people behind The Republic of Tea really know how to come up with ideas and make a lot of money with them.
We're Judy and Shawn. We're designers, we're parents, and we live in New York City.

We're reading the anthology State by State. This week we're reading and thinking about California.