Happy employees ensure happy customers. And happy customers ensure happy shareholders—in that order.

What we do for others has a direct impact on how we feel about ourselves.

I don't care about convincing the people who think I'm naive or an idiot. I'm interested in how do I inspire the people who are open-minded that there's a different way of seeing the world.

Starbucks was founded around the experience and the environment of their stores. Starbucks was about a space with comfortable chairs, lots of power outlets, tables and desks at which we could work and the option to spend as much time in their stores as we wanted without any pressure to buy. The coffee was incidental.

I never imagined working with CEOs, congressmen or the military, yet I make regular visits to the Pentagon, stop by the Capitol now and then and sit down with leaders of all kinds of companies.

Leadership is not about the next election, it's about the next generation.

Too many people write books because they want to be a New York Times best-seller. They want the glory and the fame.