Howard Schultz: Called out by father-in-law to go make money | Forward Progress

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0:30Hey, it's Graham. It's Thursday. And that means we're offering you another positive piece of a past interview. Each week, our team digs through the archives to find our strongest feel-good stories to present to you in podcast form. This week, Howard Schultz.

0:50The year you were raising money, I understand, was arguably the hardest of your life. Tell about, if you could, the walk your wife's dad asked you to go on with him. At that time, I had left Starbucks and formed my own coffee company called Il Dernali. And so Sherry was pregnant with Jordan, so the year was 1986. I had no salary as we were raising money for Il Dernali. And context here is also you gave up a high-paying job in New York to pursue what had become your dream. Yes. I had no income. Sherry was working and pregnant. And Il Janali was a dream, you know, just trying to make it happen. And it wasn't going well.

1:36I couldn't raise the money. And Sherry's parents came out to Seattle from Ohio. And one afternoon, Sherry's father literally said, let's take a walk. and I thought it was, you know, I didn't know what was going to happen, but it got clear to me when he said, let's sit down. I want to have a serious talk with you. And her father was a great, great guy and just turned to me and said, listen, I think you need to get a job. And I said, what do you mean? And he said, you don't have a job. You don't have a salary. My daughter is seven months pregnant and working. You have a hobby. you need to make some money and I started crying I was so embarrassed when I came back to the house and told Sherry the story if she would have at that moment said my dad's right this isn't working and she was resolute in saying my dad should have never said that and you've got to follow your dreams and we're going to make it a defining moment if she would have said I think he's right there'd be no Starbucks the role you and Sherry play in one another's life.

2:45Yeah. Is what? Well, I think we've had this extraordinary 40-year marriage and partnership. Like any marriage is ups and downs. You know, I had to sacrifice a lot during the growth years of Starbucks. I've traveled 200 ,000 commercial miles a year for probably five years. And probably missed a lot as a father in those early years about the things I was trying to do. But Sherry was the glue. And now we're sitting in the Family Foundation office. 25 years ago, Sherry was on the streets of Seattle helping homeless kids, disenfranchised kids. And that started her level of compassion and empathy for both Opportunity Youth and marginalized communities.

3:35And here we are in the office of the Foundation doing great things because of her leadership. I'm told each of you have always pushed one another to maintain your individual independence. Well, I think, you know, you can't build a 40-year partnership in a marriage if there isn't both togetherness, independent interest, respect and dignity. And because there are going to be moments of friction and tension. And I think you need your friends and your family beside you, and you also need your independence in a way that is complementary to each other. Your son, Jordan, told me, Sherry really understands you and values you for your faults.

4:21Okay. Only my son can say that. Well, I think there are faults that I think I display all the time. I don't have a lot of patience. I don't have a lot of tolerance sometimes. So I've been told that you can get moody. When you get bad, you can get bad quick, and you just don't want to be around them when that happens. Yeah, I think through my own therapy over the years, I think I have much more self-awareness about that. I'm a big believer in therapy, and therapy has helped me. I think the key is acceptance, accepting people for their faults, looking at people in ways that values their strengths as opposed to their weaknesses, and not being too judgmental.

5:17How have you found therapy helps? I grew up with a lot of shame and a lot of insecurity as a poor kid living in the projects. My father came back from World War II very troubled and bitter, clearly had issues after the war that we didn't recognize as a family. And I think the issue of shame and insecurity followed me my whole life to try and overachieve. And then sometimes you've got to ask yourself, you know, what's enough? Because you never kind of feel fully valued. And because you're always fighting those demons as the imprinting of what happened as a young child. I still carry that shame and vulnerability today.

6:11And I try and use it as a strength as opposed to a weakness. And I think for years it was a weakness because I did have a kind of a chip on my shoulder about being embarrassed or devalued for where I came from. We'll be back with another positive story from a past interview next Thursday. and we'll pull it from our highest performing clips according to our digital community. Head over to youtube.com slash Graham Bensinger to join us. Thanks again for listening.