Howard Schultz - From a poor child to a billionaire who created a billion-dollar coffee empire Starbucks

Talking about the world's billionaires who started their business from nothing, it is impossible not to mention Howard Schultz. The talented CEO who built the world's largest coffee maker - Starbucks makes people admire.

Schultz was born on July 19, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York in a degraded social housing project. Obviously, the Schultz family had a very difficult situation. When Schultz was 7 years old, his father - the main worker in the house had an ankle accident while driving a truck transporting diapers. At that time, Schultz's father had no health insurance or workers' compensation insurance. The cost of medical treatment plus the failure to receive any compensation left the Schultz family completely exhausted.

In high school, Schultz played soccer and won a sports scholarship to Northern Michigan University. Despite receiving a scholarship, Schultz still had to work as a waiter, even selling blood to pay for the expenses incurred. After graduating in 1975, Schultz spent a year working at a ski lodge in Michigan. He then decided to attend a sales training program at Xerox, where he gained experience in phone communication and word processing.

However, this job did not really attract him to work at Hammarplast, a home appliance company owned by the Swedish Perstorp group. There, Schultz rose through the ranks of vice president and general manager, leading the sales team in the New York office.

At Hammarplast, he was introduced to Starbucks for the first time. By then, Starbucks had several stores in Seattle, and the company ordered a large number of coffee machines that caught Schultz's attention. He went to Seattle to meet two Starbucks owners, Gerald Baldwin and Gordon Bowker. He was struck by his partners' passion and courage in choosing to sell a product that could only appeal to a small segment of coffee-loving and gourmet customers.

At age 29, Schultz convinced Baldwin to hire him as director of retail and marketing for Starbucks. At that time, Starbucks had only opened 3 stores. But Schultz changed both his and Starbucks' fortunes when he attended an international event in Milan.

While walking around the city, he came across a number of bars that serve espresso and also serve customers cappuccinos and lattes on request. He then presented his new ideas to the Starbucks founders but was dismissed. This made Schultz determined to found his own coffee company - Il Giornale.

In order for Il Giornale to "take off", Schultz invested more than 1.6 million USD. During his time raising capital from investors, Schultz was vehemently rejected by 217 out of 242 investors. He had to work very hard to keep his faith. This man was determined to replicate the coffee culture he saw in Milan. In August 1987, Il Giornale bought Starbucks for $3.8 million. At this time, Starbucks has opened 6 stores.

This brand of coffee is extremely popular with Americans. From 6 stores, Starbucks was expanded to 165 stores, with annual revenue of about 93 million USD. In 1992, the company was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

After its success in the US, Starbucks is constantly reaching out to the world. Up to now, Starbucks has become a global coffee chain with more than 22,000 stores, annual revenue is measured in billions of dollars.

Of course, Starbucks had its downs too, but under Schultz the company was revived. For example, when Schultz returned as the company's CEO in 2008 (after just eight years as chairman) he tripled Starbucks' profits, from $315 million to $945 million by the end of the year. 2010. Schultz made some major changes including temporarily closing 7,100 stores in the US to retrain baristas how to make the perfect espresso.

Throughout his career at Starbucks, Schultz has always cared about his employees, whom he considers "partners" rather than employees. The company even pays full four years of college tuition for employees through Arizona State University's online learning program. In addition, due to a traumatic childhood experience when his father was injured without insurance, Schultz decided to cover health insurance for all employees, including part-time workers.

Schultz also used his influence to oppose gun legislation, he also advocated the importance of a diverse and multiracial society. In addition, Starbucks also participates in a program to donate leftovers from stores to establish food banks across the United States.

"I always felt like something was missing. When everyone else had stopped to rest, I kept running, chasing after something that no one else could see," Schultz wrote in his memoir, "Drop My Heart".

In this memoir, Schultz also reveals that his success today is in memory of his late father, who "never got a break all his life".

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