Interview at Café Wiro
201200909 Han Gyul Kim
"Would you like to have some coffee? I roasted Yirgacheffe coffee beans today. It tastes better after day or two, though."
Hee Su Park, the owner of Café Wiro, recommended the coffee of the day whenever I visited the café. He is a man in his thirties, who opened Wiro after quitting his job in one of the major companies of Korea. "Wiro means 'consolation' in Korean," he said, "it is what I want to give to my customers by a cup of coffee I brew."
Wiro is a small, cozy café located at the first floor of a small building. Two Dutch coffee makers are placed on the bookshelf beside the entrance. There are only four tables: three inside and one outside. Some paintings are hung on the wall and a small stereo is placed on the biggest table, playing classical music all the time. The owner is usually standing behind the bar where he makes drinks. Or sometimes, he is doing something sitting in front of the desk in a small space behind the bar. When I asked for an interview to him, he came to the table that I was sitting with a cup of Yirgacheffe coffee.
"I can see many paintings here, and as far as I know those paintings get replaced every month except the biggest one," I said. "For the biggest piece," he said, "an artist I personally like and know gave it as a present to celebrate the opening of the café. She visited a few times and drew it based on the atmosphere of my café." He explained that the calendars on the wall are also from his another painter friend. "Actually, I have been interested in art and culture almost as much as coffee since I was a kid. I had been a member of choir and theater when I was an undergraduate, and I still have the passion for those activities. So I have been thinking the way to relate my interest in coffee, art and culture, and to support to the indie art culture. If I could expand my business in the future, I would like to do some culture business. I'm thinking about planning performances or organizing a troupe." He was dreaming of expanding a café to make a stage in it. A couple weeks after the interview, there was a private exhibition of an indie painter at the café, just like he said. He said it was very satisfying not only because it was the first step for his goal, but also they donated the earnings to charity.
"I heard that you once worked in a big company. How did you come to open your own café?" He answered with a smile looks like he had a lot to tell, "Since long ago, I wanted to do something on my own, something like my own shop. So I started to think about what makes me happy and what I am good at, and came to an answer that coffee is the one that can satisfy both." Listening to that, I had to ask why he didn't start a café from the beginning but worked as an office worker. "Because there is more risk to fail when you start a business without any experiences," he said. So he worked for a company first to learn how to work and build up experiences. Also he thought the people's view toward an ex-worker at the major company would affect positive to him, which turned out to be true. He said it was an advice from his supervisor when he participated in an internship in school days.
"So obviously, it wasn't a difficult decision for me to quit my job," he replied as I asked him how he felt when he quitted his job. In fact, it was quite surprising to me because I couldn't imagine myself quitting a solid, high-paying job. "But the problem was my family." His voice was shaking a bit as he reflected the time his family was always worrying about him. "As I was preparing a wedding, I felt sorry for my wife, too." What made him so discouraged was that he couldn't talk to his family about the difficulties he was going through. He didn't want to make family's worry bigger.
"Weren't you worried about yourself? I think you would have had some uncertainty about your future," I asked. "Of course I went through all the worries and thoughts that you may have expected," he answered with a small laugh. He said he was worried whether he was doing right or not till lately. But he thought that it was the last chance he could do what he wants. "There were two choices; certain unhappiness and uncertain happiness. I chose the latter." For him, working for the company was something that caging him in a fixed routine.
He remembered the hard labors that he had done to open the café. It was surprising to know that he painted the shop by himself. "I had to make the wall smooth with sandpapers before painting it. I worked with plenty of dust. I almost cried, and really wanted to give up," he said. The lack of confidence about success made him suffer. Looking back those hard times, he now thinks that it was a worthy experience which helped him cut down the startup cost.
These days, he is teaching coffee to students in church and sometimes at his café when students come to do job experiencing. He said it is sad to hear students asking him whether he earns enough money for living. "I don't think money is everything about career and life, but it's hard to tell young students so. But that's what I try to say to young students when they visit here."
He didn't say the exact amount of the money he earns per month, but he implied that his income is not that big. His idea was that it is not right to wish or earn the big money without proper experiences and competence. He was looking 50 years ahead from now for his business. "I have a lot of time left to make financial success. I think what I have to do now is to find what I can give to people, to meet their needs."
When I said to him that I want to do my own business after graduation, he gave me a warning; although our society encourages the young to launch their own startups, it is not easy at all because the risk of failure is too huge and funding is difficult. "I hope our society to be a better place for youth to realize their dreams."
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