Discover Your True North. George Bill
Schultz clashed often with his father, as he felt the stigma of his father's failures. “I was bitter about his underachievement and lack of responsibility,” he recalled. “I thought he could have accomplished so much more if he had tried.” Schultz was determined to escape that fate. “Part of what has always driven me is fear of failure. I know all too well the face of self-defeat.”
Feeling like an underdog, Schultz developed a deep determination to succeed. Sports became his early calling, because “I wasn't labeled a poor kid on the playing field.” As star quarterback of his high school football team, he received a scholarship to Northern Michigan University, becoming the first in his family to earn a college degree. His fierce competitiveness never faded; it just shifted from football to business.
Working in sales at Xerox, Schultz felt stifled by the bureaucratic environment. While others thrived in Xerox's culture, Schultz yearned to go his own way. “I had to find a place where I could be myself,” he said.
I could not settle for anything less. You must have the courage to follow an unconventional path. You can't value or measure your life experience in the moment, because you never know when you're going to find the true path that enables you to find your voice. The reservoir of all my life experiences shaped me as a person and a leader.
Schultz encountered Starbucks Coffee during a sales call at Pike Place Market in Seattle. “I felt I had discovered a whole new continent,” he said. He actively campaigned to join the company, becoming its director of operations and marketing. On a buying trip to Italy, Schultz noticed the Milanese espresso bars that created unique communities in their customers' daily lives. He dreamed of creating similar communities in America, focusing on creating coffee breaks, not just selling coffee.
When he learned he could acquire Starbucks from its founders, Schultz rounded up financing from private investors. As he was finalizing the purchase, he faced his greatest challenge when his largest investor proposed to buy the company himself. “I feared all my influential backers would defect to this investor,” he recalled, “so I asked Bill Gates Sr., father of Microsoft's founder, to help me stand up to one of the titans of Seattle because I needed his stature and confidence.”
Schultz had a searing meeting with the investor, who told him, “If you don't go along with my deal, you'll never work in this town again. You'll never raise another dollar. You'll be dog meat.” Leaving the meeting, Schultz broke into tears. For two frenzied weeks, he prepared an alternative plan that met his $3.8 million financing goal and staved off the investor.
If I had agreed to the terms the investor demanded, he would have taken away my dream. He could have fired me at whim and dictated the atmosphere and values of Starbucks. The passion, commitment, and dedication would have all disappeared.
The saddest day of Schultz's life came when his father died. Schultz shared with a friend the conflicts he has had with his father, and his friend remarked, “If he had been successful, you wouldn't have the drive you have now.” After his father's death, Schultz reframed his image of his father, recognizing strengths such as honesty and commitment to family. Instead of seeing him as a failure, he realized his father had been crushed by the system. “After he died, I realized I had judged him unfairly. He never had the opportunity to find fulfillment and dignity from meaningful work.”
Schultz channeled his drive into building a company where his father would have been proud to work. By paying more than minimum wage, offering substantial benefits, and granting stock options to all its workers, Starbucks offered employees what Schultz's father had never received and used these incentives to attract people whose values are consistent with the company's values. As a result, the employee turnover at Starbucks is less than half that at other retailers.
Among Schultz's greatest talents is his ability to connect with people from diverse backgrounds. He tells his story and the Starbucks story at special events and visits two dozen Starbucks stores per week. Each day he gets up at 5:30 AM to call Starbucks employees around the world. He said, “Starbucks gave me the canvas to paint on.”
Starbucks is the quintessential people-based business, where everything we do is about humanity. The culture and values of the company are its signature and its competitive difference. We have created worldwide appeal for our customers because people are hungry for human connection and authenticity. Whether you're Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, or Greek, coffee is just the catalyst for that connection. I don't know if I was drawn to this business because of my background, or whether it gave me the opportunity to connect the dots, but it has come full circle for me.
In 2000, Schultz turned the reins over to a new CEO, Jim Donald, but remained as board chair. In 2007, a controversial e-mail he wrote to Donald and Starbucks' executive committee expressing his concerns that the Starbucks experience was becoming commoditized was leaked to the press. This created a firestorm in the media and among Starbucks' customers and employees. In January 2008, Schultz returned to Starbucks as CEO. One of his first moves was to shut down all U.S. stores for a half day of employee training to emphasize Starbucks' need to restore its original culture. Starbucks' spectacular results since then have validated the effectiveness of Schultz's leadership.
Howard Schultz is one of dozens of authentic leaders who traced their inspiration and success directly to their life stories. Like most leaders, Schultz deals with both positive and negative thoughts that compete in his mind. I call this phenomenon “dueling narratives,” a phenomenon that influences even the most successful leaders.
Schultz's positive narrative keeps him focused on his dream. Yet he retains a deep fear of failure emanating from his father's experiences. Rather than let his negative narrative drag him down, he uses it in conjunction with his positive narrative to keep Starbucks focused on succeeding.
The leaders we interviewed discovered their True North by understanding their life stories. Their stories cover the full spectrum of experiences, including the impact of parents, teachers, coaches, and mentors; the support of their communities; and leadership in team sports, scouting, student government, and early employment. Many leaders were influenced by difficult experiences, such as personal illness or illness of a family member; death of a loved one; or feelings of being excluded, discriminated against, or rejected by peers.
These leaders found their passion to lead through the uniqueness of their life stories.
Not by being born as leaders.
Not by believing they had the characteristics, traits, or style of a leader.
Not by trying to emulate great leaders.
Simply by being their authentic selves, they became great leaders, using their gifts to help others. Some outstanding leaders, such as Regeneron chair Roy Vagelos, did not see themselves as leaders at all. Instead, they wanted to make a difference and inspire others to join with them in pursuing common goals. If that isn't leadership, what is?
As former secretary of Health and Human Services John Gardner once said, “I guess I had certain leadership qualities that life was just waiting to pull out of me.” Have you examined what leadership qualities life wants to pull out of you? Let's focus on the life stories of two more leaders. As you read these stories, think about the ways your life story inspires you and defines your leadership.
Dick Kovacevich: From Grocery Store Clerk to Premier Banker
For 20 years as chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo, Dick Kovacevich compiled the most successful track record of any commercial banker. In his interview for this book, however, he did not focus on his professional success but talked instead about how his experiences growing up in a small town in western Washington shaped his leadership philosophy.
Kovacevich was raised in a working-class family and interacted with people of all incomes and education levels. The dairy farmers, loggers, and workers that he knew at the local Weyerhaeuser sawmill were intelligent people who worked hard and had high ethical standards but lacked college educations. His teachers had a tremendous influence on him, encouraging him to do well academically and go to college.
From the age of 11, Kovacevich worked in a local grocery store, which stimulated his interest in business. After school he played sports, then