This May Sound A Bit Naive, But

To Stay Vigorous, A Company Needs To Provide A Stimulating And Challenging Environment For All These Types: The Dreamer, The Entrepreneur, The Professional Manager, And The Leader. If It Doesn't, It Risks Becoming Yet Another Mediocre Corporation.

I Could've Just Walked Away But I Never Could Have Forgiven Myself To Allow Starbucks To Drift Into Mediocrity Or Not Be Relevant. I Just Couldn't Be A Bystander.

But When You Really Believe-in Yourself, In Your Dream-you Just Have To Do Everything You Possibly Can To Take Control And Make Your Vision A Reality. No Great Achievement Happens By Luck.

When I First Discovered In The Early 1980s The Italian Espresso Bars In My Trip To Italy, The Vision Was To Re-create That For America - A Third Place That Had Not Existed Before. Starbucks Re-created That In America In Our Own Image; A Place To Go Other Than Home Or Work. We Also Created An Industry That Did Not Exist: Specialty Coffee.

I Grew Up In A Working Class Family Where There Was No Health Insurance. I Saw First Hand The Fracturing Of The American Dream And The Bitterness That Comes When There Is No Hope And A Lot Of Despair. So I Wanted To Build The Company, In A Sense, That My Father Never Got A Chance To Work For.