I talk about Personal Growth, Management, Infrastructure and More | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
The junior who carried coffee… and ended up running the company
|
I told you about Horward before. 1982. New York. A young guy joined a company. Not as CEO. Not as strategist. Not as “Head of Vision.” Director of Retail Operations. Exciting, right? Mid-level. Replaceable. Just another guy executing someone else’s plan. The company was called: Starbucks The guy was: Howard Schultz At that time, Starbucks didn’t even sell the “Starbucks experience.” They sold beans. Machines. Coffee equipment. No romance. No Italian fantasy. No global empire. Just beans. But a day, he starts making things. He goes to Milan. He walks into espresso bars. He sees something no one else at Starbucks saw: Not coffee. Community. Ritual. Status. Daily habit. He comes back to Seattle. Excited. Pitching the idea. The founders basically say: “No.” Too risky. Too theatrical. Too different. Now here’s the moment that matters. He wasn’t the founder. He wasn’t the owner. He didn’t have control. He was just a junior executive with conviction. So he left. Started his own chain. Proved the concept. Raised money. Took risk. A lot of risk. Then, in 1987… He bought Starbucks. Let that sink in… The employee. Bought. The company. Yes… Nobody promotes you to the top. You take it. Not by shouting. Not by title. Not by LinkedIn bio inflation. Sorry… it does not work that way. In PPPs. In infrastructure. In real estate. You don’t climb by seniority… at least, not just by it. You climb by perspective. I’ve seen 28-year-olds in bid rooms who were sharper than 55-year-old “Vice Presidents.” The difference wasn’t intelligence. More about change in mindset in the link below... 24 hours left. ​The 60-Day PPP Career Accelerator – Apply HERE​ PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
Vicente Valencia
I talk about Personal Growth, Management, Infrastructure and More | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
Excellent professional. First in coming in. Last in leaving. Sacrificing holidays, family time and even health. Limited recognition. Or not recognition at all. Tried to change career path. “If only you had specific experience”, “It would be great to have it done it before”, “But this is complicated”, “If you had more exposure to clients”, “what’s your commercial experience”. Don’t blame those questions, or the messengers. Fear is logical. In today’s world where you have to cover your @ss at...
You talk to that person and think, This must be someone important. Vice President. Well… time to listen. It was urgent. And my agenda always has room for interesting people. Then… 30 seconds into the conversation, you realize this is going nowhere. How he talks. What he asks. The rush to prove the title… something I wasn’t interested in. Well… Disappointment. Then… You check LinkedIn and notice the company has more Vice Presidents than assistants, associates, managers, and project managers...
These days I’ve been asked many times what I think about the Conejo Malo. Or Bad Bunny. Until the Super Bowl I had no idea who was the guy. I don’t listen to much music those days… So as he is only 31, I guess that I have not heard much of his songs. And still this is irrelevant. People like judging more than complaining. And my answer about the question is simple. Whoever has what you don’t have knows what you don’t know. And whoever has achieved what you haven’t achieved has done what you...