Life according to Starbucks

9. January 2008 by BruceSmith.

One good cup of coffee can change everything

I am a coffee fanatic. For me, a great day consists of a good book, time to write, jazz playing in the background, and a great cup of Starbucks. Life just does not get much better than that. Often, that book I might be reading while sipping on a latte would be a biographical account of someone who has overcome odds in life to accomplish something significant. Howard Schultz is one of those guys. His story is about seeing life beyond present surroundings.

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, was not always on top of the world. Looking at him now one might be tempted to think his life has always been easy. This mega-rich corporate hero, basketball team owner, and head of a company that has become part of our culture did not always live the good life. In fact, if you read his book, “Pour Your Heart Into It,” you will find out his early days growing up in Brooklyn were full of challenges.

Schultz cut his teeth in a blue-collar home watching his father struggle to make it all work. Taking in all the challenges of his setting as a young person laid the groundwork for his future. Rather than perceiving the struggles as too much to overcome, Howard set his mind to forging a better future. After watching his father labor to put bread on the table and after witnessing the impact of his father’s broken ankle upon the family’s ability to survive, Howard began to set his sights beyond Brooklyn. He would have to chart new waters, as no one in his family had even gone to college, let alone, hit it big.

Eventually, Howard Schultz graduated from college and landed a good job, one that most people at that time would have held onto for life. Far from the Bayview projects he grew up in, Schultz landed a well-paying gig with Xerox, and was given the best sales training available. Just a few years into his well-respected job, however, Howard was growing restless and looking for something that offered a greater challenge.

Then came the opportunity to join on with a housewares company, where Schultz was able to get in on the ground floor. He was sent off to Sweden for some time for training, and absorbed the European culture and zest for life. As he tells it, he was overwhelmed. While working for this company, Schultz was transferred to a division where he was forced to sell products he had no interest in.

Feeling out of place and frustrated, he threatened to quit. The company, realizing they would be losing a vital asset in Schultz, actually moved him back to the housewares division, promoted him to vice-president and upped his pay. He was given responsibility for an entire division of the company, a hefty salary, a company car, an expense account, and unlimited travel, which took him to Sweden a number of times a year.

While working in this capacity, Schultz’s passion to see beyond the present was perked once again. Having oversight of a division that was selling kitchen equipment and housewares, Schultz was intrigued by the reports that showed a small coffee company placing unusually large orders for coffee makers. Motivated to check in on this Seattle-based company, Howard Schultz went up to visit and find out what was happening with this four-store retailer.

As Schultz tells it in his book, he was enamored by the setting in Seattle when he got off the plane, and then hooked on the coffee after his first few sips. More than just good coffee, it was an atmosphere, an experience, a new way of viewing time spent around a cup of java. Wanting to know more about the business and the passion for coffee that was evident, Schultz sat down with the owners to hear the story of how they began with a meager investment of less than $15,000, during a time when opening a coffee shop in Seattle made no sense at all.

Seattle was on its way down after a major recession. The theme of the day was found on billboards that read, “Would the last person leaving Seattle turn the lights out?” All the studies, all the odds, all the current information suggested a coffee company was not the way to go. The founders, however, were passionate about the dream, loved what they were doing, and were willing to look beyond the present surrounding to a hope-filled future.

As time went on and as Howard Schultz got to know the owners better, he only became more intrigued by the whole thing. Along the way, his trips to Europe had won him over to a joy and pursuit of life that the American culture lacked. Eventually, it became his dream to bring a taste of that life to America through, of all things, coffee. Willing to put aside all the success he had attained and the secure life he and his family had, Schultz asked the owners if he could become a part of the company. Friends and family told him he was crazy. Convinced he could play a part in expanding the Starbucks vision, Schultz took a leap forward and asked if he could join the ranks.

After a long dinner meeting, and a night filled with Schultz sharing his vision for an expanded Starbucks, the owners and their backers told him no. Howard was crushed, but still determined to make his way in. He went to the owners again, gave his heart-filled and impassioned hard sell, and eventually convinced them to take him on. As Schultz describes it in his book, “A whole new world had just opened up in front of my eyes, like a scene in The Wizard of Oz when everything changes from black and white to color. This barely imaginable dream was really going to happen.”

It seemed like everything was coming into focus for Howard Schultz and his new dream was unfolding. Just as he and the family were preparing to leave, however, he received a call from his mother telling him that his father was diagnosed with lung cancer and given only a year to live. Now what? he thought. Torn between pursuing his dream and staying with his father in what would be, perhaps, his last days, Schultz had to make a huge decision. After wrestling with the enormity of this soul storm and being encouraged by his father to pursue his new life, Schultz and his family set out for Seattle.

 That challenge, like many others to come, would test Schultz’s resolve and commitment to pursue a better future. There were, of course, many more challenges, obstacles, and pitfalls along the way. As history records it now, however, Howard Schultz’s decision to set off for a bigger dream, his ability to see beyond the present, his bigger view, led to the development of a staggering string of successes. After many more big decisions and some hefty risk-taking, Schultz eventually came to a place of majority ownership interest in Starbucks. The company and its coffee are now engrained in our culture, and the rate of growth and profitability have been the stuff of which dreams are made. There really is nothing like a good cup of coffee!

So what’s the point? Starbucks is an example of what can take place in the soul of an individual, a city, or a nation when a view toward a better future is embraced and pursued with passion. The present surroundings do not have to be the end of the story. What you are experiencing now does not have to determine who you are and what you become. Belief in a better way, the willingness to look beyond the now, and the courage to take risks can produce the life you have always dreamed of.

God has never quit on His dream to call us unto Himself, and He has always specialized in using less-than-perfect surroundings to get us right where He wants us. He desires that we taste and see that He is good, and He is able to make our lives a pleasing aroma before Him. The lives of men like Joseph, Job, David, and many others attest to this reality. 

If you are currently facing enormous odds or if you are at a crossroads in your life recognize God’s ability and desire to make something unique of your time here.  Dare to dream.  Take God-sized risks.  Find the life He is calling you to.  It is more fulfilling than anything else you can imagine.

(from Bruce’s book, Soul Storm: finding God amidst disaster)

 Bruce Smith

Optimuslife.org

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