Keep Making The Coffee

The April 28, 2025 edition of The New Yorker Magazine features a profile of Ryan Coogler that was written by Jelani Cobbs. Mr. Coogler is only 39 years old, but the Oakland native has already directed five award winning films, including his 2018 effort Black Panther, which at $1.3 billion is the highest grossing film ever directed by an African American. The profile was written shortly after the release of Mr. Coogler’s latest film Sinners, and provides a compelling look both at the journey of the film and the journey of the filmmaker.

I read once that success always leaves clues. And I must confess that whenever I read profiles such as these, it is not merely an exercise in curiosity. I am always searching for clues of how successful people think and to understand the key events, experiences, and influences that have contributed to their success. So when Coogler mentioned that his favorite movie was the French film A Prophet, I decided to watch it. My thinking was that if I watched the favorite movie of one of my favorite directors, it would provide some insight into his character, approach to art, and his worldview. The film did not disappoint, and I will not disappoint you by exposing the plot. But the story is essentially about navigating systems, and charts the rise of an young, illiterate prisoner who is forced to join a gang operating inside a prison. Through a series of brilliant maneuvers, the young illiterate prisoner eventually replaces the leader of the gang who first recruited him.

One of the most most powerful scenes of the movie occurs toward the end. When the young illiterate prisoner first joined the gang, his job was to make coffee for the leader and the rest of his cronies. Making the coffee was a menial task designed to underscore his unimportance and highlight his insignificance in the hierarchy. But step by calculating step, the protege eclipses his Boss in power, influence and savvy. As the young protege’s power, influence and savvy grows, he never stops making the coffee. In fact, when the young protege finally became the most powerful person in the prison, he kept on making coffee for the Boss. Puzzled by his behavior, the Boss finally asks him: Why do you keep on making me Coffee? The protege never answers.

I’ve been thinking about why the protege kept making the coffee. And one reason is that the protege realized that you cannot allow success to go to your head. Making the coffee kept him focused, kept his enemies distracted, and kept his Boss unaware. Had that been some of us, not only would we have stopped making the coffee, but we would have poured the coffee on our Boss’s head and thrown the coffee cup against the wall. Since making the coffee made him successful, he kept making the coffee.

Whenever we become successful, we have the unfortunate tendency of no longer doing the things that made us successful. Before you got married, you took your wife on a date ever night. Since you’ve been married, the only place you take her is to the grocery store. Before you got married, you looked your best every day. Since you’ve been married you only look your best when you go out with your girlfriends. Before you got the promotion, you stayed late to try to figure out how to add more value to your company. Since you’ve been promoted, you count the minutes until the day ends. Before God blessed you, you came to church every Sunday. Since God has blessed you, you only come when it is convenient for your schedule.

But let me encourage you to keep making the coffee. This is one of the lessons that we can learn from the prophet Daniel. He did not allow his success to go to his head. His success earned him the envy of his peers, who conducted an extensive background search and discovered that Daniel prayed three times a day. They used this information and their influence with the King to enact a phony law that stipulated that anyone who prayed to anyone except the King was subject to death. But even when his enemies conspired to destroy him, Daniel kept on making the coffee. According to Daniel 6:10

When Daniel learned that the decree had been signed and posted, he continued to pray just as he had always done. His house had windows in the upstairs that opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he knelt there in prayer, thanking and praising his God.

Daniel did what he always did. Success did not change him. And neither should you allow it to change you. Whatever coffee that you made or are making that has produced your current success, keep on making it. Don’t let success go to your head.