Any business today that embraces the status quo as an operating principle is going to be on a death march.

My passion. My commitment. This is the most important thing in my life other than my family.

The challenge of the retail business is the human condition.

We need to put ourselves in the shoes of our customers. That is my new battle cry. Live and breathe Starbucks the way our customers do.

Everyone starts strong. Success comes to those with unwavering commitment to be at the end.

Managing and navigating through a financial crisis is no fun at all.

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.