A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America

By Howard Schultz

In 2003, a U.S. Marine sergeant sent an email to his friends com-plaining that Starbucks refused to donate coffee to Marines serving in Iraq. He erroneously claimed the company did not support the war and “anyone in it.” He asked his friends to forward the information and boycott Starbucks, and within weeks his email was circulating around the world, planting the false belief, especially among members of the armed forces, that Starbucks did not support America’s troops.

His claim was a misinterpretation of an event he had heard about secondhand. A group of deployed Marines did indeed write to Starbucks asking for free coffee, and at the time Starbucks had a policy of only providing free products to charities. Our public affairs office sent the Marines a statement explaining the policy, and expressing regret that we had to decline their request because the U. S. military did not, by law, qualify as a charity.

In retrospect, our letter was poorly worded, and frankly insensitive, as was our decision not to send coffee to troops. But by no means did the mistake reflect any negative opinions about the military. Neither the company nor I ever took a public position on the wars after September 11, 2001.

When someone from Starbucks contacted the sergeant to explain what really happened, he apologized and, five months after sending his original email, wrote a correction to his friends, Than correction, of course, did not un viral, and the original rumor continued to circulate for years, despite several websites and articles debunking the myth.

In 2004, Starbucks did what it should have done originally and donated fifty thousand pounds of free whole-bean coffee to troops in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In the years that followed, we continued to send care packages to deployed troops, and I have received many photos of soldiers brewing Starbucks coffee in the desert or in mountainous terrain.

(Schultz and Gordon 2019, 115-116)

I am not ashamed of the wealth I have accumulated through Starbucks’ success. But I have never been interested in broadcasting my personal net worth. I’m very private in that regard. Money is not a measure by which I judge myself or want others to judge me. At the end of the day, we must each close our eyes and find peace with the decisions we have made.

(Schultz and Gordon 2019, 152)

Selling the Sonics as I did is one of the biggest regrets of my professional life. In retrospect, I believe that I was so focused on getting myself and other investors out of a bad financial situation that I did not abide by one of my own guiding principles, which is to try to balance profit and people’s needs, and make decisions that are not purely economic. A sports team’s true purpose-to bring people together as it had for me and my dad when I was young—had receded from my thoughts, even though as an owner I was a guardian of that purpose.

I also made a tremendous mistake selling to an outsider; I should have been willing to lose money until a local buyer emerged. Instead, I made a financial decision hoping for the best. The choice cost a city its beloved sports team.

I have spent countless hours trying to learn from the experience.In America, there is an outsized power that people, especially those with wealth, are often afforded. Prior to my experience with the Sonies, so many of my decisions had resulted in positive outcomes for others. The eventual outcome of selling the team, however, made me more aware than ever of the negative ramifications attached to power. The experience also imprinted upon me the searing knowledge of how a single decision can adversely affect thousands of lives. In the years since, I have thought about and questioned the very nature of power, and the enormous responsibility of those who have it.

(Schultz and Gordon 2019, 155-156)

It is also our hope that leaders in the academic world open their minds to alternate ways of teaching, learning, and discovery, and be courageous in using technology to expand access to knowledge and to educators.

And finally, it is our hope that the [College Achievement P]lan’s success will encourage more partnerships between public and private entities to stimulate more collaborative and entrepreneurial thinking Instead of just getting angry about broken systems, people can come together, further examine what’s broken, try to understand why, consult experts, and embark on more constructive problem solving, The College Achievement Plan certainly is not the only way to extend educational opportunities, but to paraphrase another insight from my wise friend Michael Crow, it proves that new solutions can exist.

(Schultz and Gordon 2019, 183)

I admitted to Chris that, from my vantage point, there seemed to be an absence of strong, individual voices. Why weren’t we seeing a singular person representing or speaking for the nation’s black community, not even President Obama? Unable to recognize a Martin Luther King, Jr., figure in 2014, I was genuinely puzzled. Over the years, through my travels, I had met many black civic and religious leaders, but no one seemed to be rising up.

Chris responded, “The leadership is there, but it shows up differently today, especially for the younger generation. It comes through social media, for instance. It’s the voices of many.”

With the bullhorn of Twitter, a 140-characters-or-less remark in 2015 by anyone could take flight in seconds and spark a movement. Chris was right. The leadership was there, I just didn’t see it, in part because I was not yet active on social media.

(Schultz and Gordon 2019, 192)

Equality for all was not the original intent of the Declaration of Independence. When the founders wrote “all men are created equal.” they were excluding women, black slaves, and Native Americans, People in every generation in American history have fought to define what that declaration meant. Some to expand the definition. Others to freeze it or violently retract it. Over time and through trials, the mean ing has become more capacious and inclusive. But equality for all is still an idea that has yet to be realized in practice. Every generation must keep up the light to make those words real, to live up to a 250-year-old ideal that continues to capture imaginations because it is so universally appealing.

(Schultz and Gordon 2019, 297)

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References

Schultz, Howard, and Joanne Gordon. 2019. From the Ground Up: A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America. N.p.: Random House.

ISBN 978-0-525-50944-8