Managing a business, small or large, today requires an extremely disciplined, thoughtful approach with regard to the pressure that people are under.

Victory is much more meaningful when it comes not just from one person, but from the joint achievements of many.

I think what we're lacking in society, not only in the U.S. but also around the world, is to find heroes once again and to celebrate these kind of people.

When it comes to Starbucks, I take every threat very personally.

I am concerned about any attrition in customer traffic at Starbucks, but I don't want to use the economy, commodity prices or consumer confidence as an excuse.

I never took classic business classes in college, so I don't have the background that any of the people running large companies have.

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.