“We woke up one day, and all the sudden Starbucks was in the middle of this political crossfire between the people who want to bring a gun into Starbucks and the people who want to prevent it. It is a very difficult, fragile situation.”

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.

When companies fail, or fail to grow, it’s almost always because they don’t invest in the people, the systems, and the processes they need.

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.

One of the most difficult things is life is to continue running your hardest when you don’t know the end point.

It is difficult to fight against anger; for a man will buy revenge with his soul.

It is difficult to walk at one and the same time many paths of life.

Never stop growing, even when it’s difficult.

How easy it is to make fun of someone, how difficult to step into their shoes.

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.

The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.

My faith has helped me through some of the most difficult times in my life.