Howard Schultz is an American businessman who played a crucial role in transforming Starbucks from a small regional operation into a global coffeehouse chain.
He served as CEO of Starbucks at various intervals and was the chairman of the company.
Schultz was inspired by the coffeehouse culture in Italy and founded Il Giornale, a coffee concern that later purchased Starbucks.
Under his leadership, Starbucks underwent rapid expansion, going public and making several strategic acquisitions and changes to its menu.
Schultz was also the majority owner of the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics but faced criticism after selling the team, which was subsequently moved to Oklahoma City.
In 2019, he considered running for president as an independent but ultimately decided against it.
I have collected the most inspiring quotes by Howard Schultz.
Best Howard Schultz Quotes
Starbucks represents something beyond a cup of coffee. ~ Howard Schultz.
Starbucks is in my blood. It is such a part of me that letting it unravel simply was not an option. ~ Howard Schultz.
While their service is ending, our responsibility is just beginning! ~ Howard Schultz.
My parents really wanted me to get out of New York, be exposed to other people, other ways of life. ~ Howard Schultz.
You walk into a retail store, whatever it is, and if there’s a sense of entertainment and excitement and electricity, you wanna be there. ~ Howard Schultz.
If it captures your imagination, it will captivate others. ~ Howard Schultz.
Managing and navigating through a financial crisis is no fun at all. ~ Howard Schultz.
We will never and I mean never-turn our backs on our employees. ~ Howard Schultz.
My passion. My commitment. This is the most important thing in my life other than my family. ~ Howard Schultz.
Growing up I always felt like I was living on the other side of the tracks. I knew the people on the other side had more resources, more money, happier families. ~ Howard Schultz.
Sometimes you have to create the thing you want to be part of. ~ Howard Schultz.
If you dream small dreams, you may succeed in building something small. For many people, that is enough. But if you want to achieve widespread impact and lasting value, be bold. ~ Howard Schultz.
Top Howard Schultz Quotes
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. ~ Howard Schultz.
Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical. ~ Howard Schultz.
You have to be honest and authentic and not hide. I think the leader today has to demonstrate both transparency and vulnerability, and with that comes truthfulness and humility. ~ Howard Schultz.
Success is best when it is shared. ~ Howard Schultz.
I think the currency of leadership is transparency. ~ Howard Schultz.
If you pour your heart into your work, or into any worthy enterprise, you can achieve dreams others may think impossible. ~ Howard Schultz.
Business leaders cannot be bystanders. ~ Howard Schultz.
Famous Howard Schultz Quotes
Grow with discipline. Balance intuition with rigor. Innovate around the core. Don’t embrace the status quo. ~ Howard Schultz.
We have no patent on anything we do and anything we do can be copied by anyone else. But you can’t copy the heart and the soul and the conscience of the company. ~ Howard Schultz.
You have to have a 100% belief in your core reason for being. ~ Howard Schultz.
I was taken by the power that savoring a simple cup of coffee can have to connect people and create community. ~ Howard Schultz.
Cutting prices or putting things on sale is not sustainable business strategy. ~ Howard Schultz.
Customers must recognize that you stand for something. ~ Howard Schultz.
The world belongs to the few people who are not afraid to get their hands dirty. ~ Howard Schultz.
Certainly the caffeine in coffee, whether it’s Starbucks or generic coffee, is somewhat of a stimulant. But if you drink it in moderation, which I think four or five cups a day is, you’re fine. ~ Howard Schultz.
Popular Howard Schultz Quotes
In the 1960s, if you were a blue collar worker or uneducated, and you had an injury on the job, the company basically dismissed you. ~ Howard Schultz.
I think if you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve got to dream big and then dream bigger. ~ Howard Schultz.
Mass advertising can help build brands, but authenticity is what makes them last. If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand. ~ Howard Schultz.
Success is not an entitlement. It has to be earned. ~ Howard Schultz.
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. ~ Howard Schultz.
I never took classic business classes in college, so I don’t have the background that any of the people running large companies have. ~ Howard Schultz.
Risk more than others think safe. ~ Howard Schultz.
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. ~ Howard Schultz.
In life, you can blame a lot of people and you can wallow in self-pity, or you can pick yourself up and say, ‘Listen, I have to be responsible for myself.’ ~ Howard Schultz.
Always challenge the old ways. ~ Howard Schultz.
Iconic Howard Schultz Quotes
Any business today that embraces the status quo as an operating principle is going to be on a death march. ~ Howard Schultz.
In times of adversity and change, we really discover who we are and what we’re made of. ~ Howard Schultz.
I think growth covers up mistakes. ~ Howard Schultz.
Entrepreneurs must love what they do to such a degree that doing it is worth sacrifice and, at times, pain. But doing anything else, we think, would be unimaginable. ~ Howard Schultz.
While we are a coffee company at heart, Starbucks provides much more than the best cup of coffee – we offer a community gathering place where people come together to connect and discover new things. ~ Howard Schultz.
If you don’t love what you’re doing with unbridled passion and enthusiasm, you’re not going to succeed when you hit obstacles. ~ Howard Schultz.
Success is empty if you arrive at the finish line alone. ~ Howard Schultz.
It’s ironic that no matter where I go, I meet people from Brooklyn. I’m proud of that heritage. It’s where I’m from, who I am. ~ Howard Schultz.
Starbucks is committed to evolving and enhancing our customer experience with innovative and wholesome food offerings. ~ Howard Schultz.
Ultimate Howard Schultz Quotes
I am concerned about any attrition in customer traffic at Starbucks, but I don’t want to use the economy, commodity prices or consumer confidence as an excuse. ~ Howard Schultz.
It was not the calling of coffee, but the calling to try to build a company that my father never got a chance to work for. ~ Howard Schultz.
In anything we do, any endeavor, it’s not what you do; it’s why you do it. ~ Howard Schultz.
Social and digital media is a bullet train, and that bullet train is not coming home. ~ Howard Schultz.
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. ~ Howard Schultz.
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. ~ Howard Schultz.
The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic. ~ Howard Schultz.
When we began Starbucks, what I wanted to try to do was to create a set of values, guiding principles, and culture. ~ Howard Schultz.
At its core, I believe leadership is about instilling confidence in others. ~ Howard Schultz.
Thoughtful Howard Schultz Quotes
Dream more than others think practical. Expect more than others think possible. Care more than others think wise. ~ Howard Schultz.
My kids probably started drinking coffee in their late teens. ~ Howard Schultz.
I was working probably at the age of 10, when I had my first paper route. I had every different kind of job you could possibly imagine as a young kid. ~ Howard Schultz.
Managing a business, small or large, today requires an extremely disciplined, thoughtful approach with regard to the pressure that people are under. ~ Howard Schultz.
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. ~ Howard Schultz.
Whatever you do, don’t play it safe. Don’t do things the way they’ve always been done. Don’t try to fit the system. If you do what’s expected of you, you’ll never accomplish more than others expect. ~ Howard Schultz.
Our history is based on extending the brand to categories within the guardrails of Starbucks. ~ Howard Schultz.
Be bold, but be fair. Don’t give in. If others around you have integrity, too, you can prevail. ~ Howard Schultz.
Effective leaders share two intertwined attributes: an unbridled level of confidence about where their organizations are headed, and the ability to bring people along. ~ Howard Schultz.
Legendary Howard Schultz Quotes
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. ~ Howard Schultz.
Success is not sustainable if it is defined by how big you become or by growth for growth’s sake. Success is very shallow if it doesn’t have emotional meaning. ~ Howard Schultz.
When it comes to Starbucks, I take every threat very personally. ~ Howard Schultz.
We are not in the coffee business serving people, we are in the people business serving coffee. ~ Howard Schultz.
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. ~ Howard Schultz.
A company can grow big without losing the passion and personality that built it, but only if it’s driven by values and by people, not by profits. ~ Howard Schultz.
This may sound a bit naïve, but I got here by believing in big dreams. ~ Howard Schultz.
Unique Howard Schultz Quotes
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. ~ Howard Schultz.
Don’t buy pre-ground coffee. ~ Howard Schultz.
Success is the by-product when you work toward the target. ~ Howard Schultz.
Believe in your dreams and dream big. And then after you’ve done that, dream bigger. ~ Howard Schultz.
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. ~ Howard Schultz.
I am convinced that most people can achieve their dreams and beyond if they have the determination to keep trying. ~ Howard Schultz.
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. ~ Howard Schultz.
Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can’t tell you whether someone will fit into a company’s culture. ~ Howard Schultz.
Inspiring Howard Schultz Quotes
When you’re surrounded by people who share a passionate commitment around a common purpose, anything is possible. ~ Howard Schultz.
With a population of more than 600 million people, an emerging middle class that is driving strong consumption, and a robust and resilient economy, Southeast Asia presents a compelling growth opportunity for Starbucks. ~ Howard Schultz.
Even though people are under economic pressure, they still want to support those brands with values that are compatible with their own. ~ Howard Schultz.
Starbucks has a role and a meaningful relationship with people that is not only about the coffee. ~ Howard Schultz.
We think of Starbucks not as a coffee company but a media company. ~ Howard Schultz.
As a business leader, my quest has never been just about winning or making money. It has also been about building a great, enduring company, which has always meant striking a balance between profit and social conscience. ~ Howard Schultz.
The issue of managing through a crisis is you have to be decisive even if you don’t have perfect information. ~ Howard Schultz.
The hardest thing about being a leader is demonstrating or showing vulnerability. And that has a lot to do with trust. ~ Howard Schultz.
Inspirational Howard Schultz Quotes
Treating employees benevolently shouldn’t be viewed as an added cost that cuts into profits, but as a powerful energizer that can grow the enterprise into something far greater than one leader could envision. ~ Howard Schultz.
I can’t imagine a day without coffee. I can’t imagine! ~ Howard Schultz.
People want guidance, not rhetoric. They need to to know what the plan of action is, and how it will be implemented. They want to be given responsibility to help solve the problem and authority to act on it. ~ Howard Schultz.
In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. ~ Howard Schultz.
Authentic brands don’t emerge from marketing cubicles or advertising agencies. They emanate from everything the company does… ~ Howard Schultz.
Everyone starts strong. Success comes to those with unwavering commitment to be at the end. ~ Howard Schultz.
Motivational Howard Schultz Quotes
The evolving social and digital media platforms and highly innovative and relevant payment capabilities are causing seismic changes in consumer behavior and creating equally disruptive opportunities for business. ~ Howard Schultz.
You have to be authentic, you have to be true, and you have to believe in your heart that this is going to work. ~ Howard Schultz.
Don’t be threatened by people smarter than you. ~ Howard Schultz.
I never wanted to be on any billionaires list. I never define myself by net worth. I always try to define myself by my values. ~ Howard Schultz.
We are witnessing a seismic change in consumer behavior. That change is being brought about by technology and the access people have to information. ~ Howard Schultz.
So these were the 98 top Howard Schultz quotes on coffee, life, business, entrepreneurship and leadership.
