Behind every billionaire there is a story!

Profile of Howard Schultz of Starbucks

Born in 1952 and raised on a Brooklyn housing project, Schultz got to university on a football scholarship and worked his way up to domestic manager for Hammarplast, a coffee-maker supplier. When he noticed how many of his machines were going to one coffee bean store in Seattle, he decided to investigate. The store was Starbucks and, impressed by the shop-owners’ dedication to coffee connoisseurship, Schultz jumped ship and started to market the original Starbucks chain of four.

A year later, the nascent entrepreneur was inspired by what he saw in Italy. The country’s plethora of coffee-houses were part of the national social structure, a place for discourse and, of course, fashionable display. The original Starbucks founders were reluctant to expand into the “restaurant” business, but Schultz eventually bought the company for $3.8million

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/profile/howard_schultz.shtml