“Risk more than others think safe.”

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?

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.

Victory is much more meaningful when it comes not just from one person, but from the joint achievements of many.

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.

We need to put ourselves in the shoes of our customers. That is my new battle cry. Live and breathe Starbucks the way our customers do.

Social and digital media is a bullet train, and that bullet train is not coming home.

In many places where coffee is grown, deforestation is a major issue. With Starbucks’ position in the marketplace and the respect and relationships we have, we can – and have, in some cases – been able to educate and influence people.

I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It’s seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It’s seeing what other people don’t see And pursuing that vision.

Effective leaders share two intertwined attributes: an unbridled level of confidence about where their organizations are headed, and the ability to bring people along.

Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can’t tell you whether someone will fit into a company’s culture.

We would take something old and tired and common – coffee – and weave a sense of romance and community around it. We would rediscover the mystique and charm that had swirled around coffee throughout the centuries.

Encouragement is awesome. Think about it. It has the capacity to lift a man’s or a woman’s shoulders. To breathe fresh air into the fading embers of a smoldering dream. To actually change the course of another human being’s day, week, or life.

Change is the nature of life but challenge is the future of life. So challenge the changes. Never change the challenges.

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.

The first person you lead is you.

You might have failed, but you’re not a failure until you give up.

A lion runs the fastest when he is hungry.

I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts.

Battles are won in the trenches, in the grit and grime of courageous determination; they are won day by day in the arena of life.