Having a Big Dream // Living Your Dreams, Part 11

Each of us has some big dream for our lives.  In today’s program I’m joined by a special guest – Peter Irvine who is the former Managing Director of Gloria Jeans Coffees.

Over the last few weeks, we've been looking at the whole issue of living out the dreams God puts in our hearts. Is it OK to have a dream? What does it feel like to go out of our comfort zones? How do we handle those difficult times along the way? If you've missed any of the programs, you can listen to them live on-line or order a CD, you can visit www.christianityworks.com. This week we are joined by a man who had a God-given dream since the mid-90s when he started the Gloria Jeans Coffees stores here in Australia. Peter Irvine is the Managing Director of Gloria Jeans Coffees. Peter, welcome.

Peter Irvine: Thank you, Berni.

Berni Dymet: Peter, tell us a bit about yourself. You come from an advertising background, don't you?

Peter Irvine: That's right. I worked in an advertising agency for just over thirty years. I started when I was just under 15 as a dispatch boy.

Berni Dymet: Literally, from the bottom.

Peter Irvine: That's right. And in the last two years, I was Managing Director.

Berni Dymet: Well, it's interesting. How do you get from the point of advertising to coffee?

Peter Irvine: Well, the last few years prior to finishing in advertising, I always felt that maybe God was putting something else into my spirit. I didn't know what it was. But I still had to work faithfully at the job I was in and building that company until something would eventuate. I didn't know whether it was me or whether it was Him. But then in 1995 our Home Fellowship leader spoke to Sue and me and said, "Are you interested in doing something different?" He was already in his own business importing tea and coffee. He had an opportunity from the U.S. to pick up Gloria Jeans. So, we decided to go over there and have a look at concept. We liked it; negotiated the deal and that started the process. I guess along the way, those two or three weeks leading into going there was more confirmation coming, from my point of view, when I got there. If it looked OK, we were going to do it.

Berni Dymet: So, did you have this unsettled feeling? You thought something else was happening but you didn't know what.

Peter Irvine: It might not have been an unsettled feeling as much as whether God was birthing something different. Our whole aim was, “do we retire?” You look around in advertising, and there's no one or very few people over 50. And you wonder whether they have been killed off.

Berni Dymet: You don't look a day over 45.

Peter Irvine: Thank you. I'll let my wife know. So, it's a full on; it’s frustrating. But it's a busy, stressful, occupation as much as we survived and thrived as an agency. We became one of the largest agencies in the country with some big clients like McDonalds and so on with 200 people in Sydney. So, you know, it's a full-on company and extremely successful and still growing. But we wondered when my time finished there, what we were going to be able to do to be able to resource the kingdom. You know…

Berni Dymet: What do you mean by that? What does "resource the kingdom" mean?

Peter Irvine: Well, you've got to finance people who are out there, whether on the mission field or reaching out to people and helping those in need in the community. We could certainly do some of that after I'd finished in advertising. But to build a business that was based on biblical principles, with my partner, who had the same ideal and then to be able to resource supporting the community and missions and people who are out there at the "coal face" if you like and finance them in doing that.

Berni Dymet: Was that always part of the dream? Was it coffee first and that later or how did that come together?

Peter Irvine: Oh, I think that was first. Coffee was just an opportunity that came along, just to be able to build a retail chain, to be able to build finances that would grow over a period of time. Even after, long after, we may not be able to work one day, it would still be there generating income in the sense both parties didn't need enormous amounts of money to live on because coming out of advertising we were fairly well off until we lost most of it in the business. But out of that came the opportunity to build resourcing and use the excess to be able to fund projects, ministry and so on.

Berni Dymet: OK. So, I guess you started to investigate this whole idea. And then, at some point, the reality of what you were doing must have cut in. And, at some point, you must have gone th