Howard went on to college at Michigan State playing football because that was the only way I could have gotten in. After college Howard went to work at Xerox where he gained a lot self-confidence. After a life-changing trip to Europe he fell in love with the romance of the Italian espresso bar. When he came back he talked to over 200 investors to raise the finances to build his dream for Starbucks in America, but ninety-nine percent of them said 'no' and it was at a time when my wife was pregnant with our first child. That was just a brutal time. Thousands of Starbucks later, Howard is living proof of what happens when you have the courage to dream big.