In 1983, Starbucks was a small company based in Seattle, Wash. Howard Schultz, one of its employees, took a trip to Italy and was taken by the romance and sense of community he felt inside the small Italian coffee shops. Though he didn't have the means at the time, Schultz knew he had to bring that feeling back to the U.S.
On OWN's upcoming episode of "Super Soul Sunday," Schultz describes how he was feeling at that moment.
"The passion was unbridled enthusiasm, desire, and the fact that I must do this," Schultz says in the above video. "So then, I got lucky."
"But you don't believe in luck," Oprah says. "Nor do I."
"No, I don't," Schultz says. "But I did get lucky. Luck is the residue of design."
When the founder of Starbucks decided to sell the company, he approached Schultz with the opportunity. "And he said, 'I'm going to sell Starbucks for $3.8 million,'" Schultz says.
"That was the good news," he continues. "The bad news is, Oprah -- I did not have one dime."
On "Super Soul Sunday" airing Sunday, Dec. 8 at 11 a.m. ET on OWN, Schultz explains how he turned his vision for Starbucks into a multi-billion dollar reality. He'll share the leadership lessons he’s learned over the past two decades and how an emphasis on ethics, authenticity and a people-before-profit philosophy helped to grow and sustain his iconic brand.
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