“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.

China traditionally has been a tea-drinking country but we turned them into coffee drinkers.

When we began Starbucks, what I wanted to try to do was to create a set of values, guiding principles, and culture.

You cant build any kind of organization if you’re not going to surround yourself with people who have experience and skill base beyond your own.

Be bold, but be fair. Don’t give in. If others around you have integrity, too, you can prevail.

You must find something that you deeply love and are passionate about and are willing to sacrifice a lot to achieve.

If your business is not on the Internet, then your business will be out of business.

If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. And when you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.

I don’t care that they stole my idea. I care that they don’t have any of their own

It is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for the purposes of spying, and thereby they achieve great results.

Opportunities are where the complaints are.

If you fail, never give up because F.A.I.L. means first attempt in learning.

We cannot change anything unless we accept it.

To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal.