There's Only One Way to Eat an Elephant

And other wisdom about tracking progress

Hello! Before you scroll down, please take a moment to check out a GoFundMe that could really use your help. I have led the selection committee for a group called Glitter Cat Barista, and every year, they work with marginalized baristas to give them access and tools to compete in barista and coffee competitions. (These competitions can be pivotal launching pads, offering professional opportunities and possibilities for career advancement, but they can also be very homogenous.) One of Glitter Cat’s competitors, Cajal Rutti, is asking for help to pay for a cued speech transliterator so she can compete. You can learn more and donate here. 

I’m terrible at pitching stories, which is a funny thing to say as a freelance writer. It’s even funnier because, in my part-time role as an editor at the coffee trade website Fresh Cup, I regularly give feedback on other writers’ pitches. But even if I seemingly can’t take my own advice, I do know enough to give one sterling recommendation: Narrow your scope and go smaller. 

I think this advice applies in a lot of situations, and I thought of it again when recording a podcast conversation with Keith Hawkins, founder of the Color of Coffee Collective (a nonprofit organization that encourages building equity across the coffee supply chain). Color of Coffee Collective is organized around a big goal, but it’s one that Keith approaches through continued conversations and incremental progress: 

And he was very honest about that because one of the things that he realized was most of his customers, at whatever level they are, can’t always make it to the big events because they’re too busy trying to keep their shops open. And so for them, what we are doing is a great way for them to connect with their consumer or their customers, and then more importantly, get within communities that don’t always see them in that fashion.

It was at that moment that I realized, “Okay, we have kind of made some breakthrough.” ... I think the old saying is, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” And that’s what we’re doing at the Color of Coffee Collective. Our goal is to literally change. Change this narrative about coffee and, more importantly, change the community of coffee just one cup at a time.

I had never heard this expression before (when I Googled it later, I noticed most websites attribute it to Desmond Tutu). Regardless, it’s been running through my head ever since, in part because it’s such a powerful visual metaphor. Elephants are huge, and should you be tasked with the enormous chore of eating one, it’d be hard to know where to start. All you can do is take one bite at a time. 

That wisdom applies to various arenas of our lives, especially when we attempt to quantify impact and goodwill. We assume that the most impact = the best, like it’s a math equation. But not only does this mentality discount the small victories earned along the way toward broader progress, it also makes us think the only form of positive change is grandiose gesture. 

I think this tendency—to want to quantify impact, to assume bigger is best—comes from, you guessed it, capitalism. It feels very similar to the way that we view success in business and enterprise, where slow and sustainable progress doesn’t mean much, and where the dictum is that we should always pursue growth at all costs. 

I’ve heard various arguments made in favor of growing a business, one of which is that you can make a bigger impact the more you expand. But that feels like it’s easily disproven, given how many of the world’s largest companies pay their people so little. If they do pursue goodwill, it often comes in the form of big, flashy gestures rather than long-term investment. Think about the times you’ve seen a company donate to a charitable cause, even while knowing that its employees suffer through horrid work conditions, or are chronically underpaid. (It’s been a minute since we’ve mentioned him, but author Anand Giridharadas talks about these dynamics in his book, “Winners Take All”—I highly recommend reading it.) And sure, there are moments when more equals more: If you donate $10,000 versus $100 to an organization, the $10,000 will have more impact. But things get dicey when we ignore smaller-scale but enduring progress in the favor of a so-called “larger” pay-off.

As I kept thinking about the elephant metaphor, I saw it pop up in other parts of my life. A friend and I recently chatted about deepening his commitment to his staff versus stretching his business outward; a coffee importer I spoke with discussed how important it is for roasters to build sustained relationships with farmers rather than incessantly diversifying their menu offerings. In both cases, positive impact looks like prioritizing existing relationships for the benefit of all parties—not striving for the next big, glittering signpost.

It also made me think about the fundamental questions we ask here. How do we ascertain what’s good or bad in coffee? How do we make purchasing decisions? How do we engage with the food and beverage items we enjoy? In the face of such big quandaries, we often overlook small changes to our detriment. Take it from Keith—it might feel like that bite you took barely made a difference, but that elephant really is getting smaller. 

Photo by Brandon Hoogenboom