THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Building The Starbucks Empire w/ Howard Behar

Episode Date: November 9, 2021

Despite Starbucks employees seeking to unionize, the company prides itself on being a place that deeply cares about the workers. In today's episode, you will meet the man that helped make that happen. How often do you get the chance to tap into the mind of one of the MOST SUCCESSFUL CONSUMER-ORIENTED BUSINESS LEADERS for more than 50 years? Do you want to learn first-hand what it was like to grow STARBUCKS COFFEE from only 28 STORES TO MORE THAN 15,000 stores spanning five continents? This week’s guest, HOWARD BEHAR, has done that and a lot more. He is best known for guiding the Starbucks brand for 21 years as President of North America and as the founding President of Starbucks International.  His philosophy of SERVANT LEADERSHIP is memorable for introducing lessons such as “The Person Who Sweeps the Floor Should Choose the Broom” and “Only the Truth Sounds Like the Truth.” If you want to LEAD OTHERS MORE EFFECTIVELY and EXPERT ADVICE on what it takes to grow your current business exponentially, you must listen to how Howard did it using servant leadership and how you can too. Howard and I also discuss why and how the right business CULTURE is a primary driving force of any company’s growth.  He reveals some of the policies he implemented to EMPOWER employees to make decisions that put customers first.  Part of this culture also involved recognizing employees, making sure they’re paid well, and that their voices were heard daily. Let me leave you with two final (and INCREDIBLE) facts. The systems and practices Howard and others put in place continue to breed success to this day.  Although he retired when Starbucks had 15,000 stores, today, there are almost 33,000 STORES IN 83 COUNTRIES WORLDWIDE. Finally, and perhaps the most amazing thing of all, HOWARD SHARED HIS PERSONAL PHONE NUMBER AND EMAIL and encourages YOU to reach out and contact him because it brings him joy and purpose.   That’s only happened one other time in all the shows I’ve taped, and quite simply one of the most impressive displays of servant leadership I’ve ever seen. If you want to know what success is all about, grab a hot cup of coffee and get ready to enjoy a great hour filled with valuable lessons you can use in your own business and personal life.

This is the end my let show. Welcome back to the program everybody. You know, the last 20 years, you know, if you think about it, there's probably four or five really iconic companies, iconic brands, at least in the United States, worldwide. And you know, you think of a Google, no matter what you think, Google, Amazon, there's a few others. But then there's Starbucks. And it's one of the, it's really the brand for me.

It's a non-tech brand that just stood out and grown and just built an amazing company. And the man who's president of that company through the explosive phase of its growth is Howard B. Har. And he is my guest here today. I'm so honored to have him. Howard got into, when Howard started with Starbucks, they had 20 some odd stores. Now they're upwards of 30,000. The company's exploded. And he's got a book called It's Not About The Coffee that I Read Covered to Cover in a Day. And if you're on the YouTube here, you can see me, the highlights

are all over the book. I learned a great deal from the book and you are all going to learn a great deal from Howard today. So Howard, thank you for being here. Welcome over the book. I learned a great deal from the book and you are all gonna learn a great deal from Howard today. So Howard, thank you for being here. Welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's so great to have you. I, the lessons in the book, you know, I have to say something,

I'm familiar with the concept of servant leadership. I've talked about it myself in my life, but you lived it and you lived it from a small company, a relatively small company, to 100,000 plus employees at one point. So, let's just start.

Today, we're going to talk about entrepreneurship, leadership in general, scaling, I've one of the experts of all time here with me today, and I'm going to get everything out of that brain that I can. So, Howard, for you, what's the definition of servant leadership from you? Well, in a simplest form, it's that leaders are here to serve, not be served. And our role as a leader is to help people achieve the things that they want out of their lives and help them grow as human beings. And so doing, they help the organization grow.

And I have this little equation I like to think about when I think about serving leadership. You grow the people, the people grow the organization, the organization grows the business. And it's pretty that simple. Our role as leaders is to grow people. Everybody says that, but in application, you know, as a company gets bigger sometimes too. Sure, you can lose that a little bit. How did you guys not lose that at Starbucks?

Was it structural? Was it just a culture thing? Did you have systems in place that delivered on that promise? How did you do it? It's just being total focused. You know, it's what mattered at Starbucks. You couldn't get fired hardly by missing your numbers at Starbucks. But if you messed with the people, it was a quick way out the door.

Our certainly quick way end is some very serious coaching. And if you couldn't make it great and how you treated people that you work with or the people that report it to in the organization, you just didn't know a place at Starbucks. Didn't mean you weren't a good person. It's just that you didn't fit the Starbucks, that's them. And that's what drove us. And it continues to drive us.

Does it dawn on you what I said in the beginning? I mean, I think it's true. You ask an average person, give me five brands, the last 20 or five companies. I think you'd list a Google or a Amazon, those are tech companies so they grew a certain way. But a brick and mortar business, I think first in most people's minds,

is a Starbucks that your age now and what you've achieved, is it dawn on you, what you all accomplished there, or was it just the work and it's like a blur over time? No, I walk into Starbucks, I'm almost in one every day somewhere we're getting a cup of coffee or something and I'm always amazed myself. But you know, there were three guys that had responsibility at Starbucks, we in the organization. I was one of them. Howard Schultz was the other guy named Warren Smith the best way a couple years ago. Anyway, our job was basically to knock down the hurdles

so that people could grow the business. That's what we did. And it was the people that did it. But we had to convince people that the purpose was bigger than themselves. And that how we wanted to do it by serving people, serving each other first, and then serving those human beings we call customers. And if you sign serving people, serving each other first, and then serving those you know, eventually call customers.

And if you sign onto that, the work was hard, but you know, I mean, it's amazing. I started when there were 28 stores. Like you said, I retired when there were 15,000, now there's 35,000. I opened stores, I had responsibility for open stores in 54 countries. Yeah.

It was the most interesting work, but it was the people that did it because they believed. You learned this from your mom and dad. There's this great story. By the way, I do my research on you, right? There's this great story of your parents in the grocery store with the family, with the bananas. And I just think this articulates,

I think it just explains the concept that in a real world application that you're describing, would you share this awesome story with my audience? Sure. My dad was an immigrant. And like many immigrants in the early 1900s, you know, they went into little retail businesses. And you know, they were serving people in their neighborhoods. And so my dad had this mom and pop grocery store.

So my dad was 50 when I was born. So I, you know, I'd full around and I'd sweep the floor. I'd just watch my dad or whatever happened to be. And one day I was up at the cash register. My dad was ringing up a customer. And those are the days they had charge accounts. You know, if people come in and then you'd write it and they're a little book and they'd even

bill them once a month. Anyway, my dad was ringing up this customer and as he was doing it, he said to me, hey, Howard, will you go get me some bananas? Get me about six or eight bananas. And so I went back in the back of the store and I got the bananas, I brought them up. My dad put them in the back and the customer's back

and the customer walked out of the store. And I was all off to realize that my dad hadn't run them up. You know, those days the cash register was all 10 keys across the top 10 keys and you had a handcracked, you know, you pulled it and I still have it, actually at home. And so he didn't ring it up and I said, Daddy, you forgot to ring the banana. And he just looked at me and said,

how are not everything in life do we need to get paid for? Some things we do just to help other people. And I happen to know these people aren't just our customers. They are neighbors and our friends. And they can't afford to buy fresh fruit. So I was just saying something nice for them. But that's what I always believed in. And so I didn't, you know, date or nine,

I didn't think about it that much. You know, but as I got older, I remember that little incident. You know, not everything we needed, we do in life that we need to get paid for. And he was so right. And as I got older, I tried to practice that and realize that, you don't need to get paid

for everything in life, you know. It's how I got to Starbucks, actually. That's how our shoulders, and how when I met Howard Schultz, we went on about a year's dance. You know, he was looking at somebody with a college degree, and somebody had foods or an experience. I had a job at the college, and I had a job at the college, and I had a job at the college, and I had a job at the college, and I had a job at the college, and I had a job at the college, and I had a job at the college, and I had a job at the college, and I had a job at the college,

and I had a job at the college, and I had a for a couple days, and I want to work on the plant for three days. And so I did that. And at the end of that, I looked at him and said, if you extend an invitation to meet a joint Starbucks, I would love to. And you did. And it was a valuable lesson too often in life we think that we need to get something,

in order to get something. We don't. What a great story. The more I've got, the more I get to know super successful business people, whether it be entrepreneurs, the role you were in, this culture thing, it's not just an item on a list. It's the thing. And I don't think most entrepreneurs completely get this.

That is the main driving factor you're telling me. Because obviously the coffee is good, there's systems in place, there's, but you're telling that's the main driving force of this company that scaled so massively over the last two decades. Yeah, without a question. Look, anybody can roast coffee and buy coffee. Never come, there were, when I started, there were 21 other coffee companies that were actually larger than we were at the time.

Whoa. All of them focused on the coffee. We focused on the coffee, too, but we primarily focused on the people first. You know, it was, as I used to say, we're not in the coffee business serving people, but we're in the people business serving coffee. And that little saying has lasted to that day. And it's absolutely true. Culture, you know, it's a funny word because we

think it's a program. It's not. Culture is who you are. It's what your values are and how those values are foreign to actions and the decisions you make in your life. And it's pretty much that simple. So, culture is a direct reflection of leadership. Period. You can't fake culture. If you're a jerk, you know, then you're going to have a lot of jerks working in your company, right? If you care about people and that's what matters to you, then you're going to have people that care about people working in your company. There's no escape. There's no escape. You wouldn't think I learned about Starbucks and prepping for this, which is surprising.

This is before your arrival. The thing I think entrepreneurs have to be open to is pivoting and going into verticals. I didn't know this. Starbucks first off wasn't founded by a bunch of coffee gurus. And number two, they weren't even serving coffee in the very beginning. It was a bean company, correct? Isn't that incredible? We're a retail company.

We sold beans and chocolate and tea and cups and coffee makers. They were sold a cup of coffee till Howard Schultz. He's not the opportunity. He doesn't want to draw it. The two hours really moved that organization. It's so fascinating to study it. I want you to get the book. He has in the book kind of like these 10 principles. And as I said, I mean, I'm an entrepreneur built multiple businesses. It's not often that I'm highlighting this much in a book. The third one is interesting to me because it's something I've struggled with, which is that you want people thinking independently.

Yeah. And you have this great analogy, be out the broom that I'll let you share. But this is something for a lot of entrepreneurs, because we're control freaks, right? Business owners were control freaks, it's sort of letting people think for themselves and trusting people to make decisions as well.

So can you elaborate on that and give them that analogy also? So it's so interesting, right? Entrepreneurs are independent thinkers usually, right? Yeah. They have many times go against the grain, but they forget that they also need to have independent thinkers on their team. Why do they think that the people they hire should be different from them? If you want a high-charge team that accomplish things that's creative, and is always trying new stuff and accelerating failure as much as they celebrate success.

Then you gotta hire people that not like you, but that can do things. So I have this saying that I used to say to everybody in the company, the person who sweeps the floor should choose the broom. And it started with I said, everybody should get to vote, right? But I wanted something that was more meaningful.

And it's like made up this little quote, the person who sweeps the floor, she chooses the broom. We go out and we hire people to come in the organization. And we hire them because we want them to help us grow. And we want them to help us be better. But as soon as they get in the organization, we start telling them what they can't do. You know, we give them a handbook.

And a handbook says, don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, and if you do that, you're out of here. Right? And what we should be saying, here's what we're trying to do here. Here's our greater purpose. We're not trying to just build thousands of stores. We're trying to do something unique. We're trying to use Starbucks copy

to build a bridge among people. So, and your role in that, why we're hiring you is to do X, Y, and Z. We want to have this cleanest floors in all of retail. So, you know, you hire that person to come in and they work for two weeks and after two weeks, you get together with them and you say,

so what do you think? And a guy is so excited. He can hardly hold himself together. He says, you know how hard? I just love what I'm doing. But I think I can increase first-sweeping productivity by 10%. If I only had this broom that I saw on the internet

the other night, you know how many leaders say, hey, just do it, I just sweep the floor. Don't talk to me about a new broom. In purchasing departments in a tourist because they'll say, this is the broom we use, use it. You know, when really what we want people to do is be creative and find new ways of doing things. So, you know, I gotta tell you that shocks me.

And the reason that shocks me is I've always viewed Starbucks as this regimented systematic operation that didn't allow for a whole lot of creativity. And to be honest with you, I've sort of taught that from time to time in my career. So you're saying, but maybe the truth is how are incredibly wrong. If the systems are so strong, yeah, actually, that that allows creativity from the people. Whereas if the systems are weaker, then that creativity could create kind of a looser environment.

If you have strong structures and systems in place that allows people to be creators more often. Maybe that's true. That is absolutely true. Look, just about any of her this before from other companies, just about every great new product that's been reduced and starved, she came out of the field. Breakfast sandwiches, warming ovens, we put in Frappuccino, came out of the field. Everything we have done has come because of an idea that somebody thought up in the field. And then, you know, we helped execute. But yeah, absolutely. That's the way that it is. And you can't, you've got to have strong systems, you know, and processes. But the things that matter most are human

interactions, right? There's no system for that. If I remember, I retired once and I came back from retirement and I walked the store and I was looking all over and in the backroom, backroom, there was this poster. It said, be nice, be fast, be clean. I ripped that thing off the ball and I said, who put this up here? And it didn't make any difference. I said, how about just a sign that says, be human? Because that's all we really want, right? And that is not a system. Yeah. Right?

Yeah. Yeah. I'm surprised about how I shouldn't be because obviously I know that that's the only way a company can scale and get bigger and really have this bigger vision, bigger dream, which is also one of your principles. But for some reason, I don't know why in my own mind when it came to Starbucks I'm thinking, okay, it's coffee, you're going to get someone in there out of there, more of the right music, playing on. But when I'm starting to read your book, I'm like, my gosh, no, turns out these principles

apply to everything including Starbucks, except you took it to a whole different level. I can't even ask you about this, about certain leadership. Recognition. So, I start reading and I'm like, wait a minute, I never knew this, but these aprons, the baristas wear are actually a form of, but almost no one in the world knows this. But the aprons, actually, the baristas wear actually are a sign of recognition based on their designation or achievement or expertise. Is that not true? There's a record. We have a black apron. These are for black aprons. These are for copy masters.

And yeah, they're a recognition of who they are. You put on that apron and you are, you know, you're somebody inside the organization and it's meaningful. And, you know, it wasn't the driving force. Recognition comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. I used to send company birthday and anniversary cards to everybody in the company told about we had about 10,000 people. I used to send company birthday and anniversary cards to everybody in the company

told about, we had about 10,000 people. I used to take them on an airplane, sign everyone, put a note in. I didn't know all the people, but I put personal notes and I sign each one by hand. And then as I, when I retired, then they took it on with the company. I don't know if they still do it, but people did it. But, but it was a way of saying, thank you and acknowledge them that they were real people and they add value. They weren't just some number, you know, and I can't tell you how many people still have those birthday cards. I've been retired for over 10 years. Still the birthday anniversary cards, I've kept them all these years. You serious? Yeah. What about this idea of pay?

So we talked about recognition. We've talked about culture, pay matters, right? I mean, there's a story of the book that you have about where you wanted to get pay up above minimum wage. You wanted to make sure people were paid better. There's a little bit of a miscalculation, I think, that happened there. But so I want you to just tell that story

a little bit for us. And then, because entrepreneurs are listening to this, right? And they're making decisions every day on meeting payroll. How do I treat people better? What about recognition, culture, all these other decisions? So I know this isn't a core of the book, but it was interesting to me because it ended up working out okay. But talk about the pay increase there,

and you're focused on it and why you want to do it. I think it comes from, you truly cared so much. You wanted these families to be rewarded, and they felt that, but I'd like you to talk about it. Well, you know, when I first got there, we were paying that all my age, basically. And I thought, geez, you know, just, is this really who we want to be? I mean, you know, Howard, by the way, Shultz, you know, he was the one that he brought healthcare into all part-time workers, no company had ever done it. Everybody got the same healthcare.

From the CEO down to the bar east of Witte, as long as you work 20 hours a week or more, which 90% of the people there. So everybody got healthcare. Everybody got equity in the company. We weren't public. We were private. Everybody got stock options.

Someday helping, we might go public. And I said, when it goes along with us, the daily pay, we can't be a minimum wage payer. And so I said, how do we get at least the dollar an hour over minimum wage? And how do we raise wages when they, when they, as they attend certain things? And so I put it in a wage increase into place.

And I figured out how we were gonna pay for it. All in, we blew the number. I was totally made a mistake on what it was actually going to cost. I thought it was going to cost us one point, one percentage point increase. It ended up costing double. So I'm on vacation when the PNLs come out for that first month where it was implemented. And I'd hit this goal from Schultz, he says, what the hell happened? And I said, I don't know, I'll get back right away.

I went back from the case and I went in and I figured we'd just make, we made a mistake. And instead of Howard being mad, he said, okay, how do we fix it? I said, I'll fix it. And we did. And I had to make some adjustments, raise some prices here and there. And I fixed it. But, you know, we've tried to stay with it. It's gotten harder because, you know, what's happened in the state of Washington that I live

in ways now is is you know getting way up there in the city of Seattle way up there You know, it's hard to stay with it but you do it and you try to make the difference if you can but it makes a difference I mean pay is pay you know is It's not the most important thing You don't keep you don't keep people just because you're paying them well. You keep people because you treat them well, because you care about them,

you treat them with respect and dignity. More and more, surveys tell us more and more companies also wanna be a part of a people, but rather wanna be a part of a cost. They wanna believe that their work has meaning. And was that part of your culture as well, the charitable, the social stuff that you guys would do, and also just how people would feel

by having the experience of walking in the store gave meaning to people. I get asked, when I walk into Starbucks for the most part, I mean, obviously there's variances everywhere, but people everywhere. People seem really happy that they're working there. Yeah, they do. I mean, that's not a perfect place, you know that.

Of course, no, I've walked into ones where there aren't, but vast majority of the time, I think one thing entrepreneurs lack, but they forget, humans forget, is you're always making people feel something, right? You're always making them feel something. So just being intentional about what it is they're going to feel matters. Is that something you would always thought about yourself? Always, always.

I had to have, I have, I live my life according to what I call my six piece. Everything in my life has to have a purpose greater than myself. Right? It has to be, you know, it's got to be bigger than me. The second P is if I have a purpose greater than myself, then a damn well better repassion about it. Scream it from the highest mountain tops. You're a guy like that. You have a lot of passion, right? The third thing is persistence.

You know, the river of life has a lot of rocks in it. Some of the rocks we see and we hit it anyway. Some of the rocks we don't see and we slam into it. And some rocks we put there ourselves, right? But the key in life is getting over under a round or through those rocks. Every great entrepreneur I've ever known, that's one word I would use to describe them.

They don't know from no. And the fourth P is patience. Nothing comes always in the time that you wanted to come. You know, you want to be your practice and skill, you want to become a great piano player, you want to fast, you want to become rich, you want it to come fast, you want to be your practice and skill, you want to become a great piano player, you want it fast. You want to become rich, you want it to come fast. You want to develop somebody, you want it to come fast. You want your employees to come faster, you know, to get it faster.

You know, but the truth of the matter is it's life takes a little bit of patience. You got to sometimes it takes longer than you think it should take, but you got to stay with it. That's where persistence and patience come together. And the fifth key is performance. We don't like to be measured. Human beings don't like to be measured. It's just a nature to human beings. But we're getting measured all the time.

You're married, you know this, you got kids, you're white, there's measuring you all the time. She may not give you a performance review every day, right? Maybe she does, I don't know. But she is measuring and sort your kids, right? When you say, I'm going to be at the soccer game, you better damn well show up, right?

When you say, I'm going to be home for dinner, you better be there. If you agree to have a monogamous relationship, then you better live up to that. And it's the same way it works. If you say to your boss, look, I'll get this done. Then you better get it done, or at least better be early and tell him you're not going to get it done on time,

or whatever it happens to be, and can he have some help? The performance matters in this life. And then the 6P, the most important paid is people. Everything we do in life is about serving another human being. I don't care what your job title is. There's only one reason God put us on this earth, and that's to serve other human beings.

You're a widget maker that makes widgets, going to a printing press, that publishing company buys and produce a magazine or newspaper, it gets delivered to somebody's door, to inform or entertain them. The lowly widget maker's greater purpose is to help people have a better life. But so often, we don't understand that in those connections.

And it's up to us and our leadership to help us find those connections because that's the key in life. Purpose freedom in ourselves. You're a remarkable Howard. I'm enjoying you so much. I'm grateful I'm sitting here listening to you. Just candidly.

This is really an honor for me. You're a good listener. And you say that that's one of the things that you believe great leaders do well. You talk a little bit about that. And also, was that something you were naturally already good at? Or did you have to start? Did you have to be intentional about when you were with people, I don't think you would struggle with this. But some some leaders have this tendency to think they're the smartest person in the room all the time. And they

don't listen to, listen, they listen to hurry up and get their response out very quickly. And even when I do interviews, I'm trying, I try to be very conscious of just listening to somebody when I'm in their presence. So how important is listening as a leader and was that something you were naturally good at or Jeff to work at it?

No, I had to work at it. Been in particular a problem source. You know, my wife would come home. She'd want to talk about her day. She's an oncology social worker. So she's dealing with people that are dying of cancer. And she'd want to talk and she said, this had this problem or that problem.

Immediately I want to go into a solution mode. You know, and one day I was reading this book and in the book was there's this little quote and it's a two word quote, compassionate emptiness, compassionate emptiness, full of compassion, but empty of solutions, right? So that means you've got to be, you got to look with compassion requires you to listen, not just with your ears, but with your eyes and with those little antennae that we don't see, but they're actually there in our heads. And so listening is a critical skill. I remember

I worked for somebody my early days, I days on my early 20s and I was managing a furniture store for him and he used to say, how are you after you close the door and you lock the door, I want you to sit in the middle of the showroom for 15 or 20 minutes, I want you to close your eyes and I want you to just listen. I thought his name was Sid. I said, Sid, what are you talking about?

Listen, there's nobody in it. And he said, listen to what the walls are saying. Listen to what the walls are saying. And you know, it took me a long time to tune into the walls, but I did. And you can feel what's going on. I used to get so I could walk into store and I'll talk to anybody and just feel it. You know, you feel the energy. You know, it's a, it's, we have, it's, it's, it, we have it inside of us to do this, but we don't know how to listen with our whole self. You just reminded me of something that I used to do, but since our new working dynamic was Zoom I haven't done.

You know, I used to do, I used to, in my office, I used to like to stay after everybody had left. And I would, I loved walking the office when no one was there. And I love just walking by. I'm getting emotional now. So bizarre. This was years ago. I would walk by someone, just stand with them, even though they weren't there. And just take some time and be with them, even though they weren't present and think about their families and think about what they were going through and what they wanted and what their dreams were and what they were gifted at. going through and what they wanted and what their dreams were and what they were gifted at.

Then I do that again with the office next store and it just gave me a gratitude and an appreciation and a ability to listen even to them when they were present. I just wanted to share that with my audience. Just sometimes just sitting in reflection about the folks that you're so blessed to lead and just giving yourself some mental and emotional time to think about them. This feels like that energy is felt by them even if they're not present. The energy is there, the energy is there, there's no question. What did you, I'm going to ask you a crazy question. One maybe haven't been asked before. So you're at the, you know, I'm 50 years old, you're ahead of me a little bit.

And so you're in the, you're in the, you're in the third or fourth quarter of life. And I'm wondering if there's something you used to really strongly hold as a belief about business or leadership at any point, that you no longer believe. That's evolved or changed. You've changed your mind about. And I've watched a lot of interviews with you and preparing for this.

I hadn't seen someone ask you that before. I got asked that about a year ago. And it stumped me a little bit, but it was good because it caused me to really think through. There are, I have changed my thinking about certain things. I mean, there's got to, can't, if I haven't changed in 30 years of being in business,

that would be sort of strange. Is there something you used to believe? Maybe there's a tough one that you don't anymore. You change your belief systems about. Yeah, in my early days, I thought that businesses were there to make profits. And they're there to maximize their profits. And over time, I have come to the conclusion that businesses are around for much, much more.

We're there to optimize profits, which means that we have to take in the whole universe, the whole our communities, our, you know, we call them stakeholders, but I don't like that word. You know, it's the people we work with, the communities in which we live and operate, the world in which we live and operate. You know, if we're not adding value to the world, then we're not being a good entrepreneur, we're not being a good business person. We, our primary role is to add value to the world. And in the end, so doing, we make a living, we make some money, you know, we can buy the end, so doing, we make a living, we make some money, you know, we can buy a nice house, we help our kids, we help people that we work with,

all that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, it's what counts really is making a better world. And that requires us to think holistically about the world in which we live. It's not about maximizing profits. That theory doesn't hold any water. And if you think about it,

if it was always about maximizing profits, then what's the great, if that becomes the greater purpose of the organization, then there is no purpose. Because the purpose is about you. And like Starbucks, we had that Jim Collins, who Jim Collins is,

good to rate Bill the last, right? So when we were a young company, we had that, you know, Jim Collins, who Jim Collins is good to rate until the last, right? So when we were in company, we had about 200 stores, we kind of, you know, you're growing fast even as 200 stores and you're trying to figure out who, all of a sudden you kind of lose track sometimes, why you're there, you know, and it's like when you're married a long time, you lose track of why you got married, right? And it's why you have to remind each other why you got together. Well, it's the same thing in business. And so Jim Collins helped us create our B hack, which turned into kind of our thriving force. And it goes like this, we want to be one of the most well-known and respected organizations in the world. Now, remember 200 stores and we said in the world, that's a big dream, right? No, for nurturing, you inspire in the human spirit. Not a damn thing about how much coffee we're gonna sell, profits, anything like that.

No, for nurturing, inspiring the human spirit. And that drives us today. Truth is it drives my life. I plagiarized that. That became my mission statement. Every day I want an nurturing, inspiring human spirit, beginning it myself, and then for others. And that's how I live my life.

I can see that. I can see it on your face. I can feel it in your spirit. And I'm sure that when people are around you, that that was infectious. I do feel it. I didn't know. I read your writing. I had read interviews, but now listening to you and observing you.

That's so obvious to me that that's who you are. And by the way, everybody, when you're listening to this, because you could become more of something. So if that's not all of you right now, right, there's not the totality of what bleeds out of your, you know, sweats out of your pores every single day, when you begin to focus on something like this, these elements of you grow. I'm sure you're more this way now than you were at 42 years old. True? Sure. I've been a believer in affirmations my whole life, and I still do affirmations every day. Probably my most significant affirmation is I am enough, I have enough, I do enough. And the other one is I love myself unconditionally. And the other one is I love myself unconditionally. 70 what year's old?

How old are you? 77. 77 years old. And you're telling me that you still say that to yourself every single day. Every single day. Every single day and I've done it for 50 years. Oh my God. Every day before I go to bed I have this little habit.

I go look at a mirror and they say, how hard? How did you do today? And it's how I did against my mission against my values, right? Against my six piece. And then I also have a five year plan and let it I have done it together. My wife and I have always done a plan together. We just updated it. Now at 77, that started to get pretty optimistic, you know? But we do. And we have it against all the all the

fastest of our life. Spirituality, material, economic growth, what we used to call career and how we call life's work, our marriage, our children, our grandchildren, travel, personal growth, you know. And then we go and we send goals underneath each one of those headings. Some of the goals are personal. If we're just for me, some of them are just for her, but our marriage, we have goals together. All right, what kind of house we wanna have? What do we wanna live, are we had goals for that?

And then, you know, we worked towards those goals. That inspires the heck out of me right there. Now, I listen for what people don't say also. And I just wanna go back back on that 77 years old, you just set up a five year game plan with your wife again, with all of the detail and specificity in there. You're making me evaluate how focused I am right now. But I listen for what you don't say.

You weren't measuring that stuff up against your competition. And in the book, there's no reference really anywhere to the competition. And I'm book, there's no reference really anywhere to the competition. And I want to ask you about it, because a lot of entrepreneurs become sort of obsessed with their competitors or want to know what their competitors are doing or are measuring themselves against them. And you don't talk about that. And so I, and I don't either, I have a reason why I don't, but I want to know why you don't. Is that

just, it just, you just didn't care? It just, do you think of your energy? It didn't matter? Why? I mean, we cared. It wasn't that we didn't pay attention. We did, but it wasn't the driving force. Look, you compete against yourself to be all you can be. If you start competing against somebody else,

then you can only be as good as they are. I want to, we want to be better than we are, you know? And that's the key. And that never ends, by the way. 77 years old, I'm still trying to grow. I'm just still trying to learn. It never starts. People think to get to some point in your life. It's not, because the excitement in life is growing, is being better, you know, is being better. I read all about you. I'm thinking of myself, gosh, why didn't I ever get those weights, you know, is being better. I read all about you. I'm thinking of myself, gosh, why didn't I ever get those weights, you know, and so, you know, you want to be better than you. That's it. Anyone to keep on. You can't measure yourself against others as

just the waste of time. I so agree with you. And you inspire me because I'm looking at my future. By the way, this last part of the interview, I get to play for all my friends and family. You're always asking me, when are you going to stop? When are you going to stop? You know, I'm like, I don't, I wouldn't know how to live without trying to get better or trying to grow. And I also think it takes an element of humility to want to grow.

Yeah. In other words, I, I know I'm not where I could be or should be and I know I can make a bigger difference. And I'd like to think that that comes from some place of humility, also a place of In other words, I know I'm not where I could be or should be, and I know I can make a bigger difference. And I'd like to think that that comes from some place of humility, also a place of confidence believing I can grow. So there's this new one between the two of there's some confidence knowing I can grow and there's some humility knowing I need to.

Yeah, exactly. You know, we should always be pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone. Yeah. That should never stop. You know, a bit curious, being inquisitive, struggling against some things, that's good for your soul. And I don't want to stop that. That's why every day I want to nurture and inspire

the human spirit. Most of the things I do in life are tiny little things. Pick out a piece of paper off the street. And sometimes I get opportunity to be in with you. But most of the things I do are not that. It's talking to something on the phone. Before we get up, if I'm going to do it right now before we get too close to the end. So I want to give my phone

number and my email address. Hello to everybody. So my phone number is 206-972776. My email address is hb at howardbhard.com. I will talk to anybody at any time. If you write me, you're gonna get a response. I may be a little slow, but I get to everybody because I think that fills my soul and I hopefully can help other people along the way. The president of Starbucks for multiple decades

just gave you his phone number everybody. And by the way, it's printed in other places. This man is incredible. You know, it's amazing to me. I have to just share this with you. Only two people have ever done that with me that I thought oh my gosh give it the phone. You know the other one was Steve Wozniak. Oh yeah. He's co-founder of Apple. It's amazing that you know he was one of the driving force behind Apple. You're one of the ones behind Starbucks and it's the only other person who's seen doing it. I'm going to conference with Wasney. I can go say, I want to give everybody my phone number. I want to, are you? Oh my gosh, really? And

same exact, it's just, it's such a great inspiring lesson for me. And now, I think some people may be listening to this. I'm just so struck by you, Howard. And I know that you don't like that. I know that I hate that. I know. I know. But that little voice on my shoulder saying, Howard, don't listen to this beat. I know. But that doesn I know that I know I know that little boys on my shoulder saying how are don't listen to this beat. I know, but that doesn't mean that doesn't mean that you shouldn't hear it and that it shouldn't express because it what it is is really gratitude. And I I've read enough about you, even my introduction, you know, I read how are don't give them on the same way when I get introduced on stage, what should we say? I say just say here's

at my lab, but I don't like big introductions or anything like that either because most of them are exaggerated in the first place. But I don't like big introductions or anything like that either because most of them are exaggerated in the first place. But I think people may be listening to this and there are a tough time. And you write about this in the books, I'd like you to talk about it. Hey Howard, this treaty people thing great is great. This inspiring and nurturing the human spirit, I like it a lot. I'm going to get around to it when I'm out in this difficult time.

Right now, I got to eat. Right now, it's stressful. Right now, there's been eat right now. It's stressful right now. There's been, you know, economic pressure put on my business and you talk about this in the book pretty at a pretty lengthy pace. What would you say to that person? It says,

all of that sounds good and I want to do it. But right now, I got to I got to make a buck. You know how to people think that you can't do you can't go that way. Look and make a buck right when you push a button down another button is going to pop up. I don't care what button You can't go that way, look, and make a buck. When you push a button down, another button is gonna pop up.

I don't care what button you put down, push down. If you push down, the treat people with respect and dignity button, what's gonna happen with the people that work with you? They're gonna pop up, and they're gonna see, these treated me well, I wanna treat him well. If you go the opposite way, what do you think button's gonna pop up? Well, if to see these treated me well I want to treat him well. If you go the opposite way what do you think buttons going to pop up? Well if he's all in for himself then why should I be all in it for myself? You know there's no escape from that. So look you know treating people with

respect and dignity or servant leadership is not the soft general mushy stuff. Servant leadership is about performance. You have to perform. And so leaders have a responsibility to set high expectations. But we get performance not on the backs of people, but with people. Not on the backs of people, but with people. And, you know, look, Servant leadership is not the only leadership way, style.

You know, and treating people with respect today, a lot of companies don't do that. I can go down the list of Uber. the guy that found it Uber was not exactly treated with respect to duty. I live in a city in Seattle, right? Close to Seattle. Microsoft was not exactly a nice place to work. Bill Gates and Steve Balmer, real or screamers abusers. Not physical abuse, but, but you know, if you came in with it, I didn't like, they just call you stupid. I mean, really use those words. They basically lost 10 years of performance because of it.

And they put the guy, a guy that had been in a long time, sorry, I can't remember his name right now, but who's an LC eel? You know, if you look at their performance, performance of the past seven, six, seven years since he's been in there, it's been unbelievable. People that were leaving Microsoft now want to come back. Why? Because he really changed the company. It's not that there, anybody was smarter.

It's he started treating, treating people with respect. And it became more people-centric. And it totally changed the organization. And that's all he basically did. I mean, yeah, maybe he had some ideas about some different direction. But, you know, that wasn't what changed it was how he treated his people. Look, he treated people well, they want to do well. I believe that's a simple.

I look at you talk about Microsoft and I even look at jobs, jobs is sort of known as sort of a ruthless very difficult demanding guy and he was honest about it and they knew who he was and he acknowledged who he was. See the worst doubles are the ones that say we're people so we care about people here right people are most important asset whenever there's some somebody say people are most important asset I say they don't get it you don't ask people are not assets you They don't get it. You don't ask people or not assets. You own assets. Assets are trucks, computers. You don't own people.

An asset always gives you what you expect. You go to turn the engine on and the truck it starts up. People never give you what they would expect. That's the fun of life. Sometimes it's more sometimes. It's less, but you know, it's, yeah. But you go, I mean, I can almost go down the list of companies that abuse their people and show you where they are, you know, and today, and the ones that have done a good job have been successful.

I think I would add too, is that usually those leaders who don't have a servant leadership mentality either burn themselves out or burn out their welcome at their own companies. And the jobs was transparent about that, but he also had a guy who was in and out all the time with like was who's the kindest sold it's ever walked here. Yeah, and he had him. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Oh, it's exactly.

It is really exactly that way. Look, I don't say this is the pathway for everybody. I would never say that. Look, if you're an asshole, then go to work for a company full of ass. Excuse the expression. Right? Right? Better to be honest about who you are, okay?

And what you want and be there. Look, every football coach is different as you know. Look at Pete Carroll, what is he like? He's a supporter. Yeah, you know, carried about people. We know football coaches are very abusive. Yes. You know, and some players like to be in those kind of environments, some people wherever

fits you. That's not my style, but that may be somebody else's. I actually think Pete Carroll is a great example because you look at him and he's the oldest coach in the NFL. I know that. And I think one of the reasons he still has the energy and is still welcome there as he has been a servant type leader. These other guys tend to burn themselves out or leave, I have Hall of Famers, leave them late in their career. That's all to say about that. But you gave your phone number out there a couple more questions Howard.

And thank you for this. This is a master class and I've enjoyed it so much and I know my audience has as well. I can feel people sharing this everywhere, but you gave your phone number out, your email out. And so you're known as a great mentor. What should someone expect from a mentee? In other words, if I wanna be mentored by somebody, what should the expectations be of me that I need to bring to the table if I'm looking for a mentor?

It's not easy, I have to say, please help me, please mentor me, no matter what environment you're in, there's accountability and responsibility on my end is the person being mentored as well. What would you say to that person? Number one, be curious. Don't come in with you think you know it, but all you don't. Right. The second thing is be humble. Right. The third thing is that a tremendous desire to improve yourself, to be all you can be. And then maybe the one that I said, love yourself unconditionally, try to love yourself unconditionally. But the most important thing I think is that, are those three things, is that you've

got to be curious, you've got to want to grow as a human being. And, you know, just because you have a mentor doesn't mean, everything a mentor says doesn't mean a trait for you. You have to have discernment. Here's the thing for me. The first thing you should do when you're working with a mentor, a mentor should do with you, is to help you figure out what your core values are online.

And they should be written down, right? And you can go on the internet and find 300 words of represent core value human values. You'll get a 10 to 50, pretty easy. And you know, those all represent things that are you're about, but get a 10 to 8, and these are the most sacrifice things that really matter to you. And then write a sentence about each. One of those values mean, if you say I'm honest, what does honesty mean to you? My first core value is honesty. What does it mean to me? So you have to decide what you're gonna do

and those core values drive your life and then have a mission for yourself. Where are you going? What do you wanna leave behind? And then have a plan, set goals. If you don't know where you're going any path, I'll get your level of life with intention. So those are the important things in having mentee mentor relationship.

I've enjoyed today so much. I don't want it to end. I know my eyes are going to keep going. But the fact is there are time constraints on these things. I'm going to ask you one last question, and I just want to say thank you in advance. I've enjoyed this tremendously. I'm curious, if I ran into you in a Starbucks, it's interesting how in all my interviews, most of them at the end I say to my guests, I say so if someone met you at a Starbucks, that's actually what I say.

And they got two or three minutes with you and they said, because I think you just answered some of it now, but and I wanna be somebody. I wanna be happy. I wanna be 77 years old. And I wanna look back on my life and think, you know what, some of my work mattered.

I've built a pretty good family. I've built a decent life. I've helped some people. I still wanna grow. And I don't wanna go get to 77 years old and look back with a bunch of regrets in my life. And, you know, I'm not exactly sure where to begin or what to think. And I've appreciated this entire conversation today, but someone had a couple minutes with you

and you just said, well, this is what I would tell you. What would what would someone with your experience, which is you've got a seat to the world and to a company in a business that almost no one's ever had before and to a life, frankly, what would you what would you say to them? I want to show you something here. Okay. Reaching into my briefcase, excuse me. Sure. So on this piece of paper right here, I'm Sean in front of you.

Yep, you are Sean. Sorry, with me for, for let's see, on 77, I started doing this when I was about 26. Sure. So it's 50 years. And this picture of Howard and 50 words or less Right, it has my core values on it my mission statement and how I do everything my six pieces So it's it tells me about how when I'm under stress

I'm just like every other human being or even when I'm not under stress when I have tremendous excitement or something I lose track of sometimes of me. And I need to remind myself. And so I have this here to remind myself, I know everywhere on this page, but whenever I get to a point where, oh, I can just pick it up and I just read it real quick and it reminds me. So, you know, if you don't know where you're going and any path will get you there. So have a path, have a plan. And then most importantly, if you want to have a fulfilling life, you've got to be open to experiencing everything in life. Joy, happiness, pain, sorrow, disappointment,

thrill of accomplishment, the thrill of failure, or the disappointment of failure, everything. I remember one time my daughter had a best friend, a young guy that had a drug and alcohol problem and he overdosed and my daughter was just beside herself, right? Because he was so close to him. And I was on my boat, maybe about a hundred miles away, and I got out of my boat and had a sea plane come pick me up and leave the forest to where my daughter was. And I went into the hospital where this young man was sitting. And I just sat on the bed with them all along, right? All along. And I watched him die. And I said to him, it's okay to go, you know,

you've been a good person, you've lived an okay life. Don't be sad. And as I watched him die, I realized I'd never experienced that before in my life. And I have never forgotten that experience of being there with that young man. And tears coming down my face as he was leaving us. And realizing that he had struggle just as many human beings struggle. And so you have to be able to experience that as well. Everything that the goal of life is not happiness. It's not to be happy. Happiness is part of life.

It's little pieces of happiness that come in order. The joy when you see how your kids play sports, my granddaughters are a great soccer player, right? She loves soccer. To watch her, doing a sister, a goal, God, it's so much fun. But, you know, also to sit with her when she's in tears about something. God experience it all, they have a fulfilling life. So try to live a fulfilling life and you won't be disappointed. This has been a fulfilling conversation for me, really fulfilling. Thanks for the great questions. I love it.

Yeah, what a great conversation. I hope you guys all just saw that this man's got it's like laminated with all of who Howard is and who Howard is is remarkable. And it's I get Starbucks now. So the book guys is not about the coffee. I know you're all going to go get it. You're probably texting Howard right now and emailing him, but today was so fulfilling from me. Howard, Mayhard, thank you so much for today, brother. God bless. Thank you very much. All right, guys, share the show with everybody fastest growing show in the world for a reason. And I think today's just another unbelievable example of how blessed we are to have remarkable people share their wisdom with us. Back's out everybody, take care. This is The End My Let's Show. you