There is a great interview by Adi Ignatuis with Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks that is well worth reading.
Here are some thoughts after reading the article. Schultz and Starbucks have been fascinating to follow over the years. The original concept of community hangout, “Let’s meet at Starbucks” was a standard for so many folks; it moved to “OMG, another Starbucks, when is enough enough“?
I began to think Schultz was a reincarnation of King Midas. Remember that king? He wished to be the richest ruler in all the lands and he was kindly granted that wonderful wish. Told that whatever he touched would turn to gold, he was a happy camper. Silverware turned to gold, drinking goblets turned to gold, coffee mugs turned to gold.
The story is a “BEWARE” story. When Midas’s daughter ran to give him a hug, you guessed it, she also turned to gold. And the moral of the story is to question when is enough enough?
For a period of time it sure looked like Shultz was on a Midas mission to rule the world through lattes and the like. Then the bubble burst, and I remember thinking it serves him right. There are more important subjects to tackle, like global warming and oil spills.
Back to the interview; there is one part where I thought, hey maybe it would be worth it to meet Howard Schultz and have a dopper espresso macchiato with him. He was asked for an example of a decision he had made that Wall Street didn’t like.
His answer: health care. He just couldn’t cut the benefits, no matter how perfect it was to do so during a down economy. A shareholder complained and he stood his ground, telling the man to sell his stock, he would not budge on this issue.
This brought to mind the Schultz I first read about years ago, the man I decided to check out and follow as a leader of substance. That Howard was determined to always have full health care for his employees after growing up watching his father struggle. His dad had an accident and was laid off from his job and the family lost their health care benefits.
At a young age Schultz internalized the pain of this family crisis and vowed to be more caring if he ever made it in business. During the recent downturn for Starbucks he could have stayed in the Midas mentality. Instead he stayed true to himself.
In the interview he goes on to say that it is important for him to look in the mirror and feel he has done something that has meaning and relevancy, something people can respect. He stayed with his heart and took on “the street“.
Question: what do you see when you look in the mirror?
Sometimes I think we are looking at little tidbits of information hoping that will give us easy answers. Partly we all have been trained to sort and judge, sort and judge, sort and judge. It is initially more complex to look at the whole enchilada, the whole system for answers.
I love to visit Google for many reasons; the beautiful campus, the creative folks biking from building to building, the respectful and helping nature of the co-workers. I especially like to spend time with my friend Chade-Meng Tan who has been with Google since the early days. He is a smart engineer and a pioneer. He is a man on a mission: to make the world a more gentle and better place for all of us.
I believe 
So, this is an exciting time to go beyond the debate about insurance companies, best or worst hospitals, good or bad physician bedside manner, and focus on how to keep health premiums down by staying healthy.
The historic health care bill passed the House and is headed for the Senate. It is of great importance since one of the major criteria for measuring the effectiveness of a society is how those who are sick are treated.
Brain science indicates that our decisions are made based on emotions not logic. It is so fascinating that so many people can ignore evidence that is right in front of them that does not compute with their emotional decisions. Think “Titanic” and you get the picture.
There is an interesting new TV program airing this Friday;