SEATTLE–Five years before Kevin Johnson became the Starbucks CEO, he was jobless and unemployed -- on purpose. There’s a lesson there for credit union executives, according to Betsy Mikel.
Mikel, the owner of Aveck, explained Johnson had been the CEO of a tech company Juniper Networks at the time and had been diagnosed with skin cancer.
Johnson found himself putting CEO duties over his treatment, often rescheduling doctor's appointments for work commitments, Aveck wrote on Inc.com, quoting a comment he made to Harvard Business Review: "Why am I prioritizing some business commitment over a health priority that could be fatal?"
So he quit his CEO job.
“Johnson quit to focus on getting better and to spend time with family and friends,” wrote Aveck. “This is when he adopted his new life mantra -- which, he says, was an important step that led him to where he is today: CEO of Starbucks, the coffee chain with 24,000 stores across more than 75 countries and counting.”
The mantra the Starbucks CEO Still Lives By
Mikel noted after Johnson quit his former CEO job, he told HBR he started living by one life mantra: Going forward, he would only do things that brought him “joy.”
Fast forward a couple of years when the founder and then-CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz reached out about joining the company, said Mikel. Johnson became its president and chief operating officer in 2015. In 2017, Johnson succeeded the Starbucks founder to become the company's CEO.
Follow the Leader?
So should you follow his lead and quit your job to pursue a life of joy? Asked Mikel. “Sounds nice, but that's not feasible for most of us. We're not all tech CEOs. Yet Johnson thinks his pursue joy mantra can still be a guiding force to people at all career levels.”
"Anyone can do it," he told HBR. "But it does take a journey of self-discovery. To be truly authentic you have to show vulnerability and it has to start from within."
Get Real
Mikel wrote that Johnson's point is that to pursue joy -- whether that's in making life or career decisions -- you have to actually know what makes you joyful. One has to know thyself. He recommends getting real about the experiences in your life that have shaped you and digging deep to truly understand what your priorities are.
"And then, once you get to that point, at least in my case, it was liberating," Johnson said.