Derek van Pelt

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.

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.

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.