Derek van Pelt

Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.

Don’t throw any of yourself away. Don’t worry about a grand scheme or unified vision for your work. Don’t worry about unity—what unifies your work is the fact that you made it. One day, you’ll look back and it will all make sense.

Your number one goal as a leader is to develop a work environment consisting exclusively of stunning colleagues.

Despite all the talk of freedom and happiness in a business model, success rests on getting responsible people in every seat. Ironically, one of the most critical aspects of creating freedom and happiness is this: You have to hire slowly and fire quickly. It seems harsh, but firing someone does not always have to be a negative thing.

Balance had always been Starbucks’ challenge. Fiscal responsibility and benevolence. Shareholder value and social conscience. Profit and humanity. Local flavor on a global scale. Now our challenge was to restore proper balance between our desire for growth and the need to preserve our heritage.

Their research suggests that once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.