“The success of the Starbucks has been based on this balance between profitability and a social conscience. Everywhere we’re doing business, were trying to manage the business through the lens of humanity.”

My mother taught me something at a young age – she said ‘you are the company you keep.’ To define yourself by some label or some level of resources – that’s pretty shallow.

Risk more than others think safe.

I think that sometimes the difference between winning and losing, success and failure, is this gray line between will, passion and self-belief that says, ‘I’m going to do this’.

Success is the by-product when you work toward the target.

If you want to achieve widespread impact and lasting value, be bold.

Good results is not an entitlement. It has to be earned and earned each individual working day via the lens of humility.

We want passion for our business.. workers who can interpret and execute our mission, who want to build a career, not just take a temporary job.

People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they’re really proud of, that they’ll fight for, sacrifice for, that they trust.

Success is best when it is shared.

Success is something that has to be earned every day.

Work should be personal. For all of us. Not just for the artist and entrepreneur. Work should have meaning for the accountant, the construction worker, the technologist, the manager and the clerk.

Starbucks is not an advertiser; people think we are a great marketing company, but in fact we spend very little money on marketing and more money on training our people than advertising.

I honestly never dreamed at the time that I would one day own the Starbucks and or be in a position where we would have more than 10,000 stores around the world. It has just been an incredible journey for all of us.

Customers must recognize that you stand for something.

It’s one thing to dream, but when the moment is right, you’ve got to be willing to leave what’s familiar and go out to find your own sound.

Who wants a dream that’s near-fetched?

To heal illness, begin by restoring balance.

Balancing your money is the key to having enough.

Business is all about learning to balance the short-term, medium-term and long-term and I think it’s when things are going well it covers up a lot of mistakes and bad decisions because you’re growing so quickly.

Feeling compassion for ourselves in no way releases us from responsibility for our actions. Rather, it releases us from the self-hatred that prevents us from responding to our life with clarity and balance.

Life balance is a myth. It’s an illusion and the very pursuit of it is driving us crazy. For me it’s about proportion – it’s really a work hard/play hard equation.

I lost my balance, making my body unstable and falling on top of my opponent. At that moment I hit my face against the player leaving a small bruise on my cheek and a strong pain in my teeth.

Grow with discipline. Balance intuition with rigor. Innovate around the core. Don’t embrace the status quo.

A beautiful deleveraging balances the three options. In other words, there is a certain amount of austerity, there is a certain amount of debt restructuring, and there is a certain amount of printing of money. When done in the right mix, it isn’t dramatic.