The Economy of You

CHAPTER

1

Give Me a Reason

WHEN I FIRST MET CHRIS FURIN, HE WAS BEHIND THE COUNTER OF HIS dad's deli in Washington, D.C.'s, Georgetown neighborhood, asking me what I wanted for lunch. He had been working there for twenty-seven years, often seven days a week, and regular customers were used to seeing his friendly smile.

Chris, who at forty-one looks like a more muscular version of actor Chris Klein, wasn't just taking salad and sandwich orders. He was also slowly building a business of his own. As television shows like Cake Boss and Cupcake Wars took off, customers started calling and asking for personalized concoctions of their own. “Somebody wanted a cake in the shape of the United States. ‘It's a pain in the butt,’ our chef said, and he'd ...