Howard Behar
speaker
126 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Nov 2024
Howard Behar’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
My dad put them in the customer's bag and the customer walked out the door. I was old enough to understand that he hadn't rung the strawberries up on the cash register. And I said, Dad, you forgot to ring the strawberries up. And he said, Howard, not everything we do in life do we need to get paid for. You know, these people aren't just our customers. They're our friends and our neighbors.
And I happen to know they can't afford fresh fruit right now. So it's my way of just saying thank you. and helping them out. And it was such a true statement. I didn't understand it, but I always remembered that. Not everything you do in life do you need to get paid for. Sometimes we wait around and pay comes in so many different ways, trophies and recognition and monetary compensation.
But the key to fulfilling life is understanding that you don't have to be rewarded for everything you do. As a matter of fact, it's how I got to Starbucks. So I'd met this young guy named Howard Schultz. He was looking for VP of operations. But at that time, I was looking to buy a small business. And I wanted to do what my family had done, all small businesses.
So we sat down for breakfast one day and he had a list of 10 criteria. Do you have a college degree? I didn't have that. Do you have food service background? I didn't have that. Finally, we got down to number 10. Can you breathe? That was the only thing that I qualified for is that I could breathe. So we shook hands and parted ways.
And about a year passed and by accident, we met up again and he still hadn't filled that position. And so we started talking and I said, look, Before we get any further along, how about if I work in the company for a week? I work for free. Don't put me in nothing. I'll just come in. I'd like to work in the trucks for a couple of days. I like to work in the stores for a few days.
I like to work in the roasting plant for a few days. At the end of that week, if we see something, then let's think about moving forward. And I fell in love in that week. And I said, hell with buying my own business. This is where I want to be. Unfortunately, Howard had extended invitation to join.
But, you know, I don't know that I would have been there if I would have said, let me work in the company for a week. You look at me, I'll look at you and we'll go from there. But all because of my dad.
I was really good at that and clean the toilets and put the light bulbs in and not worry about it. There's an old saying that to put a nail in a piece of wood, you can't just push on the nail, right? They have a hammer and the hammer has to come back before it can go forward to put that nail in partway. And that's kind of like life is.
Sometimes we think we're taking a step back, but we're really not. We're just learning and we're growing. I never worried about that. I always believed I could make a living. Whatever it was going to be, I was not afraid to work. And I didn't worry about what my position was. I didn't worry about that. When I went to work at Starbucks, I didn't say, here's what I need.
I said, what can you afford to pay me? That was my question. And whatever it was, it was fine. I did want equity. I'm not shy about that because you never can make it on a salary alone. You never can save enough money. But I always believe that if you can get equity in the organization you're working at, even if it's a small amount, because it really attaches you.
So I just think that we can get too caught up in our own BS, so to speak. We think we've made it to here. We're entitled to have this. We're not entitled to anything. The only thing that we're really entitled to is the entitlement we give ourselves to take that step back. And don't be afraid. Sometimes you got to get outside your comfort zone and do things that you're not comfortable with.
And that's how I got to Starbucks. Before I went to Starbucks, I was making $300,000 a year running a land development company. And the company got in trouble. We had to sell it and we sold it. And I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. And so when I went to Starbucks, Howard said, I can pay you $100,000 a year.
Now, I had to go home and say, we're going to have to change lifestyle a little bit. And we did. The whole time I was at Starbucks, not once did I ever ask for a raise, ever, ever. It came or it didn't come. And I knew that if I produced for the company, then I'd get rewarded. I just trusted.
Well, when I first came to Starbucks, like all small entrepreneurial companies, it was focused on the product. Howard Schultz, everybody says it's about the coffee. And I said, yes, the coffee plays an important role. It's where a lot of our creativity comes out. But this is really about the people. And if there was ever a business that's about people, it's the coffee business.
First of all, we don't produce coffee. It was naturally produced on trees. People picked it, they roasted it, they served it. So it was really about people. And people come into Starbucks stores, they sit and have a cup of coffee, reading a newspaper, looking on their computer over a conversation, having a romantic conversation with somebody else. It's always about people. And I
I got that right away and I was trying to convince people that it was about people. I was trying to convince the people at Starbucks and it was difficult for them because they were so attached to that it was all about the coffee. And I kept saying, yes, it is about coffee, but it's much more important that it's about people.
And that drove the business because that set into motion everything we did at Starbucks. And Howard and I and a guy named Warren Smith, who were the three titular heads of Starbucks, we drove that home. It was hard to get fired at Starbucks for messing your numbers. It was easy if you messed with the people. And that's what we did. And that's really what made it work.
And the truth of the matter is there is no business, there is no organization of any kind, from a family to a multi-billion dollar business to a church or a synagogue that isn't about people. And we don't recognize that. It's not about what you're selling, right? It's about who you're selling it to and why.
So that phrase is still alive and well at Starbucks today.
Yeah, we weren't perfect, let me tell you. We made lots of mistakes and didn't always live up to that, but we always came back to it. And sometimes you forget. Sometimes you get inside your own head instead of the other person's and you stop listening and stop paying attention and it gets you in trouble.
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