Thirty years ago, Howard Schultz got into the coffee business with one goal in mind: to enhance the personal relationship between people and their coffee.
He's now responsible for Starbucks, one of the world's most beloved brands, and worth at least $3 billion as chairman and CEO of the Fortune 500 company. But it wasn't an easy path to the top.
How did Schultz, who came from a "working poor" family in the Brooklyn projects, overcome adversity and grow a quaint Seattle coffeehouse into the largest coffee chain on Earth?
Scroll through to learn the story behind Starbucks and its leading man.
Additional reporting by Shana Lebowitz.
NOW WATCH: 9 things you didn't know about Starbucks
SEE ALSO: Starbucks is transforming coffee shops into bars — here's what it's like to go to one
Schultz was born on July 19, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York. In an interview with Bloomberg, he said growing up in the projects — "loosely described as the other side of the tracks"— exposed him to the world's wealth disparity.
Source:Bloomberg
He experienced poverty at an early age. When Schultz was 7 years old, his father broke his ankle while working as a truck driver picking up and delivering diapers. At the time, his father had no health insurance or worker's compensation, and the family was left with no income.
Source: "Pour Your Heart Into It"
In high school, Schultz played football and earned an athletic scholarship to Northern Michigan University. By the time Schultz started college, he decided he wasn't going to play football after all. To pay for school, the communications major took out student loans and took up various jobs, including working as a bartender and even occasionally selling his blood.
Source: "Pour Your Heart Into It"
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
NOW WATCH: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has an interesting theory about Donald Trump