Howard Schultz’s Presidential Campaign Isn’t Arrogant. It’s Naive.
His life story and leadership at Starbucks are admirable, but his political ideas aren’t ready for prime time.
The kind of guy you’d like to have a coffee with.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesTen years ago, I wrote a column about Howard Schultz that was, well, not very nice. Schultz had earlier stepped aside as the chief executive of Starbucks Corp., but with the company in a deep slump, he decided to retake control, and reinstalled himself as CEO. My column, written as a snarky open letter, suggested that his comeback would fail.
Schultz responded in an unusual way: The next time he was in New York, he invited me to breakfast. He made no effort to tell me why my column was wrong. Instead, with a sincerity that was almost unnerving, he told me his story — the same one he laid out for Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes” on Sunday. How he grew up in a housing project in Brooklyn. How he built Starbucks from a single store in Seattle. How he was the embodiment of the American Dream.