“Customers must recognize that you stand for something.”

People around the world, they want the authentic Starbucks experience.

The premium single-cup segment is the fastest-growing business within the global coffee industry.

Believe in your dreams and dream big. And then after you’ve done that, dream bigger.

The challenge of the retail business is the human condition.

We are not in the coffee business serving people, we are in the people business serving coffee.

At its core, I believe leadership is about instilling confidence in others.

Don’t be threatened by people smarter than you.

In times of adversity and change, we really discover who we are and what we’re made of.

Beverages have to be created. And they’re created by looking at what trend is in, say, the fashion industry – what color’s hot right now.

I don’t have any secret sauce and I’m no smarter than anyone else. I will say I have surrounded myself with unbelievable talent that has made my job easier.

Everyone starts strong. Success comes to those with unwavering commitment to be at the end.

My passion. My commitment. This is the most important thing in my life other than my family.

I conduct my life with an expectation that people will do the right thing. Yet even with all my experience, I am still surprised when they do not.

Every step of the way, I made a point to underpromise and overdeliver. In the long run, that’s the only way to ensure security in any job.

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

One of the fundamental aspects of leadership, I realized more and more, is the ability to instill confidence in others when you yourself are feeling insecure.

The most sensible thing to do to people you hate is to drink their brandy.

If you do not care about your end user immensely, especially in the next few years, your brand will die.

The incredible brand awareness and bottom-line profits achievable through social media marketing require hustle, heart, sincerity, constant engagement, long-term commitment, and most of all, artful and strategic storytelling.

It’s still so rare for anyone to be personally acknowledged by a brand that the impact of such a simple, polite gesture on a customer’s buying habits could be huge.

Do you know when people really become spiritual? It is when they become the slaves of God and are branded with His sign, which is the sign of the Cross, in token that they have given Him their freedom.

Our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff, like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand or empowering passionate employees and customers, will happen on its own.

If you don’t have the confidence to own the worth of your brand and share it unapologetically, you won’t make a massive impact.

Great companies that build an enduring brand have an emotional relationship with customers that has no barrier. And that emotional relationship is on the most important characteristic, which is trust.