Howard Schultz

I got a three. And as soon as I got the three, I swear, at that moment, I knew I've got to get out of here. And that's when I started putting myself in a position of meet other opportunities. And by and large, I was able to get the Hammerplast job, which was the general manager of the company, which was based in Sweden in the US. But I was a three.

I got a three. And as soon as I got the three, I swear, at that moment, I knew I've got to get out of here. And that's when I started putting myself in a position of meet other opportunities. And by and large, I was able to get the Hammerplast job, which was the general manager of the company, which was based in Sweden in the US. But I was a three.

When I hear the question, I have to go back to my childhood and think everything that I've experienced growing up in the projects in more or less a dysfunctional family because of the pressure of money. Getting the Xerox opportunity and having some level of success, but realizing I wanted more. The humility which came with rejection. The shame I had as a poor kid living in the projects.

When I hear the question, I have to go back to my childhood and think everything that I've experienced growing up in the projects in more or less a dysfunctional family because of the pressure of money. Getting the Xerox opportunity and having some level of success, but realizing I wanted more. The humility which came with rejection. The shame I had as a poor kid living in the projects.

All of that, I think, crystallized in me. And I give Sherry so much credit in realizing that together we wanted to build a different kind of life. And it gave me the courage, the conviction, and the drive to try and do something that I felt I was destined to do. I didn't know what it was. I certainly didn't know moving to Seattle was going to create the opportunity of a lifetime.

All of that, I think, crystallized in me. And I give Sherry so much credit in realizing that together we wanted to build a different kind of life. And it gave me the courage, the conviction, and the drive to try and do something that I felt I was destined to do. I didn't know what it was. I certainly didn't know moving to Seattle was going to create the opportunity of a lifetime.

But I always felt I had to get out of that station in life where I was positioned not to get to the level that I thought I deserved to be.

But I always felt I had to get out of that station in life where I was positioned not to get to the level that I thought I deserved to be.

I don't think it is common with someone for your background, poor kid in the projects coming from nothing, to get a great job, two great jobs, and be wildly dissatisfied and not feel like I've made it, but rather, no, there's got to be something more than this. There's something deep inside you that caused you to be willing to take a risk?

I don't think it is common with someone for your background, poor kid in the projects coming from nothing, to get a great job, two great jobs, and be wildly dissatisfied and not feel like I've made it, but rather, no, there's got to be something more than this. There's something deep inside you that caused you to be willing to take a risk?

I was really insecure about not succeeding. And I didn't view what I was doing as the success that I was not destined for. That sounds wrong. That I had the appetite for.

I was really insecure about not succeeding. And I didn't view what I was doing as the success that I was not destined for. That sounds wrong. That I had the appetite for.

All right. So we're getting to the big risk. So the year ticks over to 1983. Yeah. You are sent, or maybe you asked to go to an international housewares conference in Milan. Yeah. What do you discover?

All right. So we're getting to the big risk. So the year ticks over to 1983. Yeah. You are sent, or maybe you asked to go to an international housewares conference in Milan. Yeah. What do you discover?

So I went to a trade show called Matcha. with a big convention center and it's a giant houseware show with equipment and all kinds of stuff. And I was staying at a relatively cheap hotel in walking distance to the convention center. I get out of the hotel. I'd never been to Italy before.

So I went to a trade show called Matcha. with a big convention center and it's a giant houseware show with equipment and all kinds of stuff. And I was staying at a relatively cheap hotel in walking distance to the convention center. I get out of the hotel. I'd never been to Italy before.

And I am all of a sudden being intercepted with the physical manifestation of one coffee bar after another in the business that I'm supposed to be in. But it wasn't the business that Starbucks was in. And I walk in like a normal person that's never seen this before. And I am just like, I'm in a black and white movie. And all of a sudden, everything was color. And it was so rich.

And I am all of a sudden being intercepted with the physical manifestation of one coffee bar after another in the business that I'm supposed to be in. But it wasn't the business that Starbucks was in. And I walk in like a normal person that's never seen this before. And I am just like, I'm in a black and white movie. And all of a sudden, everything was color. And it was so rich.

I couldn't get enough of it. And I just went from one to the other to the other to the other. And I was just blown away and more or less raced back to America. sat down with Jerry and Gordon and said, holy shit. We gotta do this. What's happening in Italy is the business that Starbucks has to be in. And they had seen it. They've been in Italy. And they said, no, that's not what we wanna do.

I couldn't get enough of it. And I just went from one to the other to the other to the other. And I was just blown away and more or less raced back to America. sat down with Jerry and Gordon and said, holy shit. We gotta do this. What's happening in Italy is the business that Starbucks has to be in. And they had seen it. They've been in Italy. And they said, no, that's not what we wanna do.