More Than Anything Else, Technology Will Pave

Early On I Realized That I Had To Hire People Smarter And More Qualified Than I Was In A Number Of Different Fields, And I Had To Let Go Of A Lot Of Decision-making. I Can't Tell You How Hard That Is. But If You've Imprinted Your Values On The People Around You, You Can Dare To Trust Them To Make The Right Moves.

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.

A Great Business Has To Have A Conscience. You Have To Know Who You Are And Who You Are Not.

My Biggest Concern Is That America Is Drifting Towards Mediocrity And That People Don't Recognize - And By People I'm Meaning Washington - Don't Recognize The Sense Of Urgency And The Fact That I Don't Think This Is A Crisis Anymore. I Think It's An Emergency.

When I First Discovered In The Early 1980s The Italian Espresso Bars In My Trip To Italy, The Vision Was To Re-create That For America - A Third Place That Had Not Existed Before. Starbucks Re-created That In America In Our Own Image; A Place To Go Other Than Home Or Work. We Also Created An Industry That Did Not Exist: Specialty Coffee.