Before the holidays, I had an instinct that I needed to read about how Starbucks started. So I asked Mom to go to a big US bookstore and request the most "classic" book about the company (there have been so many). At Christmas time, she brought across to Zurich Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang. It's the story of how Starbucks was founded, published now 12 years ago.
I didn't get to read the book over the holidays because Mom had dived into it on the airplane and wasn't quite finished yet. She eventually reached chapters about going public, investments and business decisions, which allowed me to finally get my hands on it because that part of the story "wasn't as interesting." Thank goodness! Or I might have needed to fly back to Ohio for it.
For me, the entire book was interesting - an important read at a key moment in my business choices. I felt I gained a little mentoring from Howard.
Among the aspects that kept coming back to my mind was a question: Why don't I have this passionate vision to grow big fast like Schultz did? Am I lacking something in the entrepreneurial spirit?
A few weeks later, I figured it out for myself while writing at 6 a.m. from my sofa. I'm starting my business later in life - not my late 20's or early 30's but in my ripe old 40's. I already feel the tug of life passing faster than I can enjoy it. I fully feel the passion, commitment and persistence for my new Six for Yourself program. My heart is going into it.
It's just that at mid-life I've learned to dream about more than business. Still, I'm going to try to learn something from Howard and grow successfully by caring about one participant at a time!
Comments