How Howard Schultz Changed The World With A Cup Of Coffee

If I would have told you to start a coffee shop in the 70’s selling nothing but coffee you might have said I was crazy. If you think about that today it’s crazy to think of a life without a Starbucks on every corner. In fact today there are young people who never lived life without a Starbucks.

I remember walking around Manhattan as a young boy with my parents and seeing a Chock Full O Nuts coffee shop and a Dunkin Donuts here and there but never the domination of Starbucks. Did you know there are corners in NY with a Starbucks on each corner? Starbucks is one of the marvels of our society. What used to be a McDonalds in every country is not a Starbucks in Every country. The most fascinating thing about it is that it was all started by one man with a will to create something amazing, Starbucks Founder Howard Schultz.

I don’t write this article to explain the life of Mr. Schultz or the Starbucks story. But as we do on The Motivated Mind it’s to use it as an example of someone who changed the world in a big way. I can see a few people rolling their eyes already saying how does Starbucks change the world? It’s just coffee. Actually, it’s not just coffee that makes Starbucks amazing. After all, Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds have been selling coffee for much longer.

What makes Starbucks so amazing is the atmosphere they have. It’s the cool factor of being in a creative environment and enjoying a good cup of coffee. There is something important about sitting on a rustic/modern wooden chair rather than sitting in a plastic yellow booth. Howard Shultz has made Starbucks a destination. A place to open your laptop and work or have a meeting over a cup of coffee. These are things we never did in McDonald’s.

If you don’t know the story of Starbucks Mr. Schultz has published a few books explaining the companies history as well as several books on customer service and how you can implement the Starbucks way in your business. Starbucks is so much more than just another place to have a cup of coffee.

What I love about the Howard Schultz story is his will and determination to build what will be one of the greatest success stories of our lifetime. How he started working at a local Starbucks and quite to start his own coffee shop because the owners did not like his ideas of creating Italian inspired coffee shops. After all Starbucks at the time was selling ground coffee by the bag. Later Starbucks started struggling and told the original three stores to Howard Schultz and the rest is history.

At the time Mr. Schultz didn’t have the $3000.00 and found a way to get it. I think about how many people would have said, I don’t have $3000.00 and let the opportunity pass. How many people let barricades stop them from taking their lives to the next level?

We all have 24 hours a day but what separates the successful from the non-successful is the will to make it happen. One of my favorite quotes is “If you think you’re can’t then you’re right”.