I think people will walk into the Starbucks store and overnight recognize the significant difference between what Starbucks represents day-in and day-out and all the other coffee companies that have been serving coffee in India for so many years.

You must find something that you deeply love and are passionate about and are willing to sacrifice a lot to achieve.

Our mission statement about treating people with respect and dignity is not just words but a creed we live by every day. You can't expect your employees to exceed the expectations of your customers if you don't exceed the employees' expectations of management.

I think growth covers up mistakes.

I think Starbucks created a platform and, ultimately, a runway for many other companies to emulate. I suspect if we had not achieved what we have, there would have been many regional brands that would have succeeded. But I'm not sure there would have been a national brand of the scope of Starbucks.

I really believe that you cannot use the stock market as a proxy for the economy.

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.