the story of Howard Schultz, the man behind Starbucks.
☕ From Public Housing to Global Coffee Empire: The Story of Howard Schultz
Howard Schultz grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. His family lived in a housing complex for the poor. Money was always tight. His father worked a series of low-paying jobs — from truck driver to factory worker — with no health benefits. One day, when Howard was 7, his dad fell on the ice and broke his hip. With no insurance, no savings, and no backup plan, the family struggled even more. That moment stuck with Howard — not just as a hardship, but as a lesson in why people deserve dignity at work.
But Howard had dreams. Big ones.
He was the first in his family to go to college, attending Northern Michigan University on a football scholarship. He didn’t end up playing, but he worked hard — juggling bartending and odd jobs to stay in school. After graduation, he started selling home appliances for Xerox, and later joined a Swedish coffee maker company, which led him to visit a tiny coffee store in Seattle called Starbucks.
Howard was fascinated. At that time (early 1980s), Starbucks wasn’t a café — it just sold beans. But when he visited Italy on a business trip, he saw something that changed everything: espresso bars on every corner, filled with energy, conversation, and community. He thought, Why not bring that experience to the U.S.?
When he pitched the idea to the Starbucks founders, they weren’t interested. So, Howard took a bold step. He left the company and started his own — called Il Giornale — raising money from over 200 investors. He got rejected by 217 people before he finally raised enough. But he didn’t quit.
Eventually, in 1987, he bought Starbucks from the original owners and turned it into what we know today: a worldwide coffee empire with thousands of locations, all based on that Italian café experience. He also made sure his employees (even part-timers) got healthcare — a promise rooted in that cold day when his father fell.