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Is Opening a Coffee Shop Considered Standard Suicidal Behavior??

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, While reading coffee-related articles today, a topic stating "Opening a coffee shop is considered standard suicidal behavior" deeply caught the writer's attention. The content was a screenshot of a dialogue box: the original poster's view was: "Opening a coffee shop is considered standard suicidal behavior, regarding the poster's wallet, emotions

Today while reading articles about coffee, a topic stating "Opening a coffee shop is standard suicidal behavior" deeply caught this writer's attention.

The content inside was a screenshot of a dialogue box:

The original poster's view was: "Opening a coffee shop is standard suicidal behavior, extremely detrimental to your wallet, emotions, health, and life. Whether part-time or full-time, it will lead to disastrous consequences. If you're sick, you need to treat it, not avoid treatment, just toughing it out without medicine or doctor visits - that's how absurd, casual, and escapist it is." Although the poster was somewhat agitated in their expression, it's clear they hoped this netizen would carefully consider what problems they most need to solve right now.

Analyzing the Mental State and Coffee Shop Operation

Let's start by analyzing the mental state of our friend in the dialogue (hereafter referred to as "Q"): "Due to work pressure and interpersonal issues at a state-owned enterprise, I suffer from severe depression, resulting in inability to concentrate, lack of motivation, poor energy and overall condition, and slowed thinking and actions. Therefore, I believe I'm more suited for repetitive hands-on work like coffee, baking, and light meals."

Operating a coffee shop very much requires the owner's own motivation and enthusiasm. Although Q likes coffee, they merely enjoy the process of brewing coffee because it provides comfort to their emotions and mindset during the brewing process.

However, operating a coffee shop isn't something you can do well just with passion alone. This is a business. Although it seems simple, in today's society with coffee shops everywhere, running one successfully is extremely difficult. Because what you face isn't just making coffee, but also focusing on decoration, rent, utilities, marketing, and raw material costs. These operating costs cannot be borne or faced when in a negative emotional and mental state without self-adjustment, and they will also aggravate your own anxiety.

Loving coffee only sparked the idea of opening a shop, but running a coffee shop requires more than just passion - it needs the ability to set appropriate marketing, operations, and management based on the current situation. Although Q mentioned having some store operations and new media operation experience, it's clear Q hasn't deeply understood store operations and new media applications, only superficially understanding some basic knowledge. Plus, with the backing of a state-owned enterprise, these store and new media operations already had resources and customer bases, which gave Q the illusion that running a new coffee shop/official account could easily obtain resources/customers.

Analyzing Q's Personality and Communication Challenges

Next, analyzing Q's personality: "I have a bad personality, am not likable, and also have a people-pleasing personality. I've tried hard to change but can't find the right way. I'm easily isolated when interacting with people long-term. The reason is that I can't convince and manage the seniors in the team I lead, which makes me even more afraid to communicate and coordinate with team members/clients."

From Q's expression, we can see they lack confidence. It's precisely because of this personality combined with team disobedience that Q uses certain tones in their expressions to mask their lack of confidence or tries to force team members to obey through a tough attitude. (Of course, this is just an inference from their expression, not necessarily how Q actually is.)

From the dialogue expression, we can see that Q's leader highly values them, which proves that Q's abilities are temporarily stronger than the members of the team they lead. The relationship between seniors and juniors has always existed in the workplace, but society looks at ability - whoever is stronger gets ahead. It's quite normal to face jealousy/disobedience from others, but since the leader values Q, it proves they have their work advantages in the team.

As the saying goes, win people over with virtue. To gain others' recognition, you must do well yourself and lead by example. When the team is unwilling to cooperate at first, stand on equal footing with team members - do whatever the team does. Once everyone can agree on one thing, then start arranging the next matter and gradually create distance in the scope of work. By understanding and observing everyone's work strengths, assign different responsibilities. A team requires good communication from everyone, discussing together, solving together - you can't act stubbornly alone.

The Reality of Coffee Shop Operation

Communication is equally important whether working for others or opening a coffee shop. Whether partnering with others to open a shop or opening one alone, starting from renting the shop is a long communication process. The people you face are no longer those doing the same work as you. Landlords, renovation teams, wholesalers, customers, etc. - not everyone you encounter outside your team can accommodate/cater to a personality you yourself find problematic.

Opening a coffee shop isn't as beautiful as depicted in movies. Especially now, the domestic coffee market is developing very rapidly, and coffee shops everywhere struggle daily with the problem of "how to attract new customer sources." Plus, the virus hasn't been effectively controlled yet, so there are too many unknown and irresistible factors!

Using opening a coffee shop to escape the nine-to-five work life is the wrong direction. Because as an employee, you can still have at least one rest day per week and have private time after work. But opening a coffee shop means 7 days a week, 24 hours a day except for sleep, you need to worry about the coffee shop, constantly calculating various things. Although it's something you love, the pressure in this situation is no less than when working for others, and may even be greater.

What Q needs to do right now is to let go of the source of pressure and get out of their predicament as soon as possible with medication assistance - rather than opening a coffee shop and entering an infinite loop of anxiety.

The Reality vs. Dream of Coffee Shop Ownership

Besides Q, many friends from other industries now hope to become baristas through recruitment, learn skills, and then open a coffee shop to escape their current nine-to-five life. Everyone thinks being a boss is better than being an employee. But regarding this matter, many people haven't considered that entrepreneurship is a process that requires a lot of mental energy and continuous running. Coffee shops are definitely not as peaceful and quiet as they appear on the surface. All successful coffee shops are inseparable from the owner's love for coffee + recognition of coffee's value + wholehearted dedication to the coffee shop... No one can succeed casually - all success comes from付出 a lot of tears and sweat that others can't see.

Is being a coffee shop owner really better than being an employee? Let me quote a netizen's comment: "Opening a coffee shop is just working in a different position. You go from pleasing one boss to pleasing many bosses." This sentence represents the bitterness of entrepreneurs. Therefore, it's really unnecessary to choose opening a coffee shop just to escape reality or the nine-to-five routine, because the final result won't be as wished.