10 Pieces of Wisdom from the Founder of Starbucks

Starbucks, the world-famous coffee company founded by Howard Schultz, has been a leader in the coffee industry since it was created. In 1993 he started Starbucks' first store and today there are over 20,000 of these stores around the world. The following are 10 pieces of wisdom from Schultz about success and business that you may not know before reading this blog post. All the information you need to start a success or run a successful business is contained in this article.

1. Embrace your unique talent

Schultz states that he was not born to do management. He was a great food writer, but he felt like he had been born to do coffee and since that is what he was best at, he just did it. The same can be said for you if you want to succeed in life. Your talent could be something you feel passionate about and can make money with but your true passion should always come first and above any other talent.

2. Take a chance on yourself

A lot of people will tell you to pick a career and stick with it, but that is not what Schultz says. He recommends that you follow your passion and if you do, then the success will take care of itself. It's not enough to just follow your passion, but you must also act on it as soon as possible so that the passion doesn't fade over time. By taking risks on yourself, you are also taking a risk in business because one wrong move could put you out of business completely, but if it pays off for you then it will be worth the risk.

3. Figure out what you really want

Most of the time, people do not know that they want to do something until they are asked what they want to do. In regards to his career, Schultz states that if he had been asked at a younger age what he wanted to do for a living, he would have answered I don't know. This can be said for most people who ask the question and if you are ever asked this question in the future, then don't give an answer that you don't know about. Figure out what you want first before answering such a question.

4. Be willing to work hard

Schultz worked hard for everything that he has accomplished in life and business. He worked an 80 hour a week schedule for Starbucks. He did not stop until everyone else stopped. This example is important because it shows that if you want to achieve a certain goal, then you must be willing to put the necessary effort in to do so. If you want something bad enough, then you must be willing to put in the hard work necessary.

5. Don't work for a personality

In the early stages of Starbucks, Schultz took a risk by hiring CEO Jim Donald without knowing anything about him. However, in 2005 when President George Bush visited Starbucks, Schultz asked Donald to come with him. He felt that Donald was the right man for the job and he was proven right as Donald won the award of Chief Executive Officer in 2008. While having a great leader as your CEO is very important, having a great leader is not enough. You must always have good people behind them in order to succeed.

6. Train people to take care of you

Schultz states that for him to successfully run a successful business, he must be able to delegate and trust his employees to take the lead in certain areas. This is something that you should do in your business as well, because it will help you get ahead and work less when you have a team taking care of things for you. You should have good employees so that they can take some pressure off of yourself and they can accomplish more while working less.

7. Know your numbers

Schultz states that if you want to be successful as a business owner, then it is important to know your numbers because this will tell you if your plans are working or not. You should know how your business is doing each month as well as each year. What you don't want to do is set your numbers up to where they will turn out bad but good. The goal must always be to make things work the way that you planned them to work.

8. Pay attention to others

Schultz states that he took a lot of the advice that he was given throughout his career. In regards to meeting people, he says that it is important for him to remember everyone's name that he meets with and always pay them the proper respect level. If you pay attention to others, then they will do the same with you. If people feel special around you, then it's going to come back to you in a positive way.

9. Be trustworthy

Schultz states that he believes that if someone takes care of him, then he must be able to take care of them back. If someone makes the first move in helping him out then he feels like it is his duty to do the same for them. Whenever Schultz is at a conference or another public event and someone asks for an autograph, he gets up and goes up to them because he wants them to know that they are important too.

If people feel special then they will do the same for you, because they will feel like they owe you something. This is important to remember in business because your customers and employees are the key to your success.

10. Follow your heart

Schultz states that he wants to have a good time with his company and have a good time with his customers. He wants to be sure that his employees enjoy their jobs as well so that everyone can benefit from a happy staff. The more money you make, the more work you must put into it, but once those profits exceed what you can handle, then it's time for someone else to take over. If you don't enjoy your job, then you will start to mentally ware yourself down and it could cost you dearly.

Conclusion

Schultz has many great inspirational business quotes throughout his book. If you want to be successful in business, then you should always remember what he says because it is advice that can help anyone get there. Keep in mind that when you run a business, your job does not stop when you leave the office at night. Most of the time, your job never ends until the day your company goes under. Therefore, it pays to have someone else pick up the slack so that you do not have to put in as much work as before.