Quick interesting facts about Starbucks:

• Starbucks originates from Seattle where it once was a coffee bean roaster & retailer
• Original Starbucks owners were three partners: English teacher, Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker
  
• Starbucks is currently the largest coffee house in the world
• 17,009 stores in 50 countries
• One Tuesday afternoon in February 2008, Starbucks closed all of its US Stores. A note posted on 7,100 locked doors explained the reason: "We're taking time to perfect our espresso. Great espresso requires practice. That's why we're dedicating ourselves to honing our craft."
• Over 200,000 employees
  

Howard Schultz is an entrepreneur who is in the business of expanding and sharing his passion with the world; coffee. He is not in the business of making dollars that continue to double and triple as years pass by but rather keep the connection of their customers and their heritage alive throughout the years, and finding ways to reinvent that connection and emotional attaments years after years. This is the reason why Starbucks has maintained its statues as the biggest coffee brand in the world. No matter what business you are running, your product will be outdated, outrun or outgrown after a while, HOWEVER, if you build your business on a the model of love and passion, and always find strategic ways to transfer those two elements you have for your products to your customers, you will be able to stand the test of time and continue to be the peoples choice. No one gets tired of happiness, which is ultimately what a Starbucks coffee shop does; great tasting coffee, good feel environment = joy = happiness.

What this video as Howard tells his story of Starbucks...

Howard's latest book, Onward, is my current read which is highly recommended to everyone. "In January 2008, chairman Howard Schultz resumed his roles as President and CEO of Starbucks eight years after he relinquished them, replacing Jim Donald, who took the posts in 2005 but was asked to step down. Schultz’s immediate objective was to restore what he characterizes as the “distinctive Starbucks experience” after years of rapid expansion that had compromised it." (Read more here)

One must learn how to sell happiness, you master that and you can be making the big $.