Trident Booksellers & Cafe was opened on Newbury Street in Boston in the fall of 1984 by Bernie and Gail Flynn. They moved to the Boston area in 1983 from Vermont where Bernie had previously owned a bookstore. That store was started in 1976 at the end of the "hippie turned back-to-the-lander, turned Buddhist, turned entrepreneur" sort of era. The immediate motivation for opening a business in Boston was the birth of a son and the concurrent realization that making a living was not optional in the 80's. The bookstore-cafe idea took shape because at that time in Boston there were very few places to sit down with a fine cup of coffee and linger over a conversation or a book. There were grand ideas and very little capital and a location that was considered the wrong end of Newbury Street. A mixed beginning at best. Now twenty five years later, The Trident as we all call it is still alive and continually evolving. The constant struggle with money continues unabated but the pleasure and potential of The Trident bring intangible rewards. In a sense, The Trident is trying to redefine what success in business might be like following the Buddhist notion of right livelihood.