THE NONLINEAR PATH 02: What I Learned From Howard Schultz
Creative Career Writings From Struktur•ed
For some reason, we all seem chained to the idea that a successful career path is one that follows a clear and distinct line. We view odd steps off the path or holes in the resume as suspect. However, most, and I mean probably 95%, of the people I know have a path that is as tangled as the power cables under my desk, with twists and turns they try to smooth out through downplaying or omitting details of their lives. I’ve done this as well only to realize as I get older that I have been denying large pieces of what makes me…me. I have come to realize that our nonlinear pathways actually lead us through and to our own uniqueness.
Each of us are valuable due to what we bring to the table that is different, and our own varied experiences are what truly make us different. I decided recently to reflect on my own early career detours after some current events brought them to light. I wanted to examine and honor the gifts they gave me that made me the creative leader I am today. I wanted to stop hiding some of the pieces of who I am, step by tangled step.
The people were smart, interesting, and loved coffee. And they seemed to love working at this place.
I actually did get to work with Howard Schultz. It was during his early years at Starbucks, then just a cool little coffee company that had been hanging around Seattle since 1971. Howard was just setting the company on a trajectory to take over the world and I had just landed in Portland fresh off the I-5 trail from California ready to start my adult life.
I was about to turn twenty. I didn’t have a job or a place to live. I had some college classes to my name and about $1K saved up. I also had about four years of solid work experience: fabric retail, blueprint runner, graphic design intern, photographer’s assistant and photo printer.
Although I felt ready to tackle the world in my head on my own, the real world quickly let me know exactly how ready I wasn’t. I couldn’t find work in any field I had experience in. I didn’t have quite enough work or life experience nor did I have any personal connections. I was going in cold and in 1990 no serious place would hire a young punk-rock girl with black hair and weird clothes. Tattoos were still super-taboo. I felt way out there on my own and a bit lost.
A friend’s brother said to me “Hey, why don’t you try that new coffee joint that just opened up where that restaurant used to be in Pioneer Square. You know, the one in that big glass building right on the actual Square? Some coffee place out of Seattle. I hear they’re expanding and hiring tons of young people.”
Ok, whatever. I’d never worked in food service but I needed a job. So I was hired on the spot by a cool woman who was barely older than me. Seems this place was super hip to hiring artsy-types with crazy hair. Tattoos were acceptable. The people were smart, interesting, and loved coffee. And they seemed to love working at this place.
In early 1990 Starbucks had less than 60 stores in Seattle, Vancouver BC, and Chicago. Portland was city number four on new leader Howard Schultz’s path for world domination. He was growing it fast with a solid plan to introduce the US to really good coffee, and in the process was attracting a lot of passionate young people to his cause. He hired creative minds, paid us well, full benefits for even part-time, offered career advancement and all the free coffee we could drink. I wasn’t really even adult enough to have developed a coffee habit yet but I got sucked in.
I no longer felt so alone and lost, but career-wise I really had no idea where I was headed. This job was so far from the world of art, photography, and music that had been my life so far. I did seem to be on some kind of divergent path, to survive. I drank the caffeinated kool-aid and quickly moved up to become one of the company’s best baristas and one of its first “certified” Skill Trainers.
The new coffee culture creators. Starbucks Coffee, Pioneer Place Mall, Portland, Oregon. 1991.
The Fallacy of The Linear Career Path
What does it mean to have a “career”? We have this culturally-fixed idea of a linear path that sometimes begins before birth, set in motion as prenatal parents get on waiting lists for preschools and start college funds. For others it starts over the grade school years as children discover things they enjoy or excel at and are encouraged towards, or discouraged from, certain path options.
This leads us all into the idea that we must pick what we want to do by the time we leave high school and follow that linear path to its end. We must start early to get ahead and keep climbing that ladder to the tippy top. But this model is rarely a reality for anyone, and those who try to follow it often find the top isn’t what they thought it would be, if they get there at all.
David Sherwin, previously of frog Design, spoke eloquently about his non-linear path in his talk Design Leadership: or, what you already know and should be up here talking about at Struktur Event in 2015. Planned trajectories are offset by set-backs, derailments, changes of plan, stepping back in order to jump higher, or going another route altogether, showing us that the standard career path is actually a jumbled mess in which we hope to end up in a better place than we started. The real message is to learn to enjoy the messy path.
So why do we strive for the linear path as an ideal or a measure of success? We may not realize it, but we all subscribe to it in some way and tend to harbor guilt around our own non-linear paths. This lies at the heart of the “imposter syndrome” most of us creatives feel. Creativity itself is non-linear. It flows, like water, wherever it needs to go or else it becomes stagnant and stuck.
…the recruiter described my background as “eclectic” to which I found myself feeling offended.
A few months ago I was approached by a recruiter looking for someone to head up design at a major martial arts uniform and gear supplier. I was pinpointed for my very unusual mix of extensive design leadership for large outdoor performance companies and several decades of martial arts experience. I was also a woman. I was a unicorn which was kind of exciting. Then the recruiter described my background as “eclectic” to which I found myself feeling offended. I could tell I was feeling embarrassed at my non-linear path to design…again. Imposter syndrome was rearing its head as it has before, but I had been doing so much internal empowerment work over the years that I chose to lean into it. I looked “eclectic” up in the Oxford and Webster’s dictionaries:
eclectic: adjective. /ɪˈklektɪk/ /ɪˈklektɪk/ (formal)
not following one style or set of ideas but choosing from or using a wide variety.
composed of elements drawn from various sources
selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles
OK, that’s me. I could own it now without feeling offended. It was funny because I had also recently removed an early job from my Linkedin profile in part because of the eclectic comment. I thought it looked irrelevant and quite frankly feared it also showed my age too much (that is a thing, especially in certain industries, that we are facing more than ever in our current economy and longer lifespan). The position I removed was my Starbucks role as Skill Trainer. What’s even funnier is that immediately after I removed the role I was called out by the Starbucks Alumni group on Linkedin for making posts to an alumni-only group. They could no longer tell I had worked there. It felt like the universe was telling me I needed to own my non-linear path.
So I added it back, was invited to join the Green Apron Alliance and was encouraged to share more of my story. By owning it, instead of feeling like an imposter, I found myself with some valuable and relevant stories to tell from a past role I thought didn’t matter anymore. And I found myself thinking deeply about how working for Starbucks, and directly with Howard Schultz, helped shape my path as a designer and how it continues to do so.
What did I learn from Howard?
I learned about coffee. I learned about community and how to create one. And I learned that people and connection to each other are what is most important. Say what you will about the company and its leader, but let me tell you what it meant for a twenty year old to have a fun place to work, that paid almost twice the minimum wage not including tips (which were substantial if you worked a great store), provided high-quality health benefits, training, growth opportunities and education support. It meant a lot. It meant I could afford my own apartment, take on new responsibilities, travel to cool places, and meet energizing people.
Howard would say to us that we weren’t in the coffee business, we were in the people business. It was always clear that Howard cared about the people, employees and customers alike. He also cared about fellow competitors. I remember my first trip to Seattle as a new trainer. Two of us trainers, along with our boss, were joined by Howard for a walking tour of all the local coffee shops. As we visited Torrefazione and Seattle’s Best Coffee, I was shocked to see the camaraderie among these brand leaders. They welcomed Howard like an old friend, offered us their best pull of espresso and joined us as we all talked about what made great shots and how all these companies are lifting the level of coffee in the US together. This was learning at its absolute peak, by osmosis through the visionary himself. That’s why I was hooked.
This was how Howard Schultz always was to me: available and ready to talk to people and coffee. His standards for both the drinks and the treatment of each other and customers were as high as it could get. My job as a trainer was to teach these standards to all new Portland managers and baristas in two distinct classes: bar skills (how to pull perfect shots and how to call drinks out appropriately as pens were NEVER allowed on the bar), and customer service skills, or “the Starbucks Way”.
Though he was based in Seattle we saw Howard often. He made a visit to every store as much as he could to see how we were doing and ask us what we needed. He held “open forums” when in town, informal meetings where employees could hang out, drink coffee, and ask Howard anything about the business…in person. Howard made it so relaxed and egalitarian. He listened to us and it showed… in the company, the employees, and how we in turn treated the customers.
Eventually I moved on to the next twist in my path, and Starbucks grew exponentially. A few years later Howard moved out of his leading role and it was noticeable. I saw the decline over time in customer service and the quality of drinks. It was hard to watch as employees didn’t greet customers or say thank you, as drinks piled up on the bar, as menus became more complicated and employees stumbled over each other inefficiently.
Every time Howard came back to the company things improved. I could always tell when he was back in charge. This showed me the importance of people and of purpose. Howard was so passionate, about coffee, yes, but really about how the experience of connecting with people over really great espresso in the cafes of Europe made him feel. He wanted to bring that feeling to the US and give people a place to connect, with the artists crafting the coffee out of passion.
I have come to realize that our nonlinear pathways actually lead us through and to our own uniqueness.
I realize today that this feeling, this passion is a huge part of my own foundation and how I have approached all my roles to date. It taught me to tap into my deepest passion to create, to always strive to do my best work and then push it a just little more, and to always, ALWAYS treat people with respect. Any brand I have ever worked for, large or small, I have infused all I do with this. I’ve made mistakes and fallen down, but I always try to learn from it and work to do better.
Howard’s dedication, non-compromise approach, and ability to truly listen is what made Starbucks successful. I know, with great conviction, that being able to learn from him directly is what made me successful at companies like Columbia Sportswear and The North Face. Howard showed me that passion rules, passion leads you to do the right thing, and when you follow your passion you find success. If you water it down, it ends up tasting like really shitty coffee…and it wastes everyone’s time. If I hadn’t taken this detour, I’m not sure where I would have found this vital piece for myself. All of our experiences make us who we are. They give us valuable skills and knowledge that we use if we just learn how to see it, acknowledge it and apply it. We just need to find the courage to accept all of our twisted pieces and put our own beautiful picture fully together.