Howard Schultz Company Quotations

My father had a series of blue-collar jobs and never made more than $20,000 a year. When I was seven, he got injured on a job. That was a very important point - because of the injury, he couldn't walk, and the company he was working for did not pay him. There was no compensation. So there was no money and no food.

Great companies are defined by their discipline and their understanding of who they are and who they are not.

When you start a company, it's a singular focus. You have the wind at your back.

The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.

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.

I wanted to try and build the company that my father never got a chance to work for,

I tried to build a company my father would have been proud to work for, that he would have looked back on and said, 'That's the company that honoured me, even though I don't have an education'. I wanted to build a company that had a conscience.