And with the right mentor, don't be afraid to expose your vulnerabilities. Admit you don't know what you don't know. When you acknowledge your weaknesses and ask for advice, you'll be surprised how much others will help.

I do think - as self-serving as it sounds - that I was the right person, given the very, very strong headwind we had from the economy and our own issues, to come back and rewrite the future of the company.

The entrepreneurial opportunity in America is alive and well.

California, in a sense, is almost Starbucks' largest country, with almost 3,000 stores.

At Starbucks 0 as in any business, in any life - there are so many hectic moments during the day when we are simply trying to do the job, trying to put out the fires, trying to solve any number of small problems, that we often lose sight of what it is we're really here to do.

In anything we do, any endeavor, it's not what you do; it's why you do it

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.