Weekly Torah Portion

In 1987 Starbucks was a company with six coffee stores. Looking to sell the company, the owner first approached a young former employee to see if he was interested. Howard Schultz, then in his mid-30’s, definitely was but he also definitely did not have anything close to the $3.8 million required. The seller offered him 90 days to raise the money, during which he promised the opportunity was Schultz’s alone.

So he got to work fund-raising. A month before the deadline Schultz had raised half of the money, but the seller called him in for a meeting.

“We have a competitive buyer,” he was told. The other person was among the most well-known businessmen in Seattle at the time, was offering $4 million in cash – and was actually one of Schultz’s investors. Schultz was crushed.

A few days later, a lawyer friend helped him get a meeting with one of the city’s most seasoned attorneys, a man Schultz had never met or even heard of. But the aspiring owner said he would meet anyone who might help him.

The lawyer listened to his situation and asked just two questions: Is everything you told me true? Have you left anything out? After answering affirmatively, Schultz was asked to return two hours later. When they reconvened, the lawyer told him they were going “for a walk.” Where? To see the competing buyer. Schultz’s heart raced, but off they went.

Once they entered the businessman’s office, the lawyer wasted no time: “You should be ashamed of yourself,” he told the man. “This is not going to go down. You are going to stand down, and this kid is going to realize his dream. Do you understand me?”

They left a few moments later, and Schultz asked the lawyer what he should do now. To which the lawyer named Bill Gates Sr., replied, “You’re going to buy the company and my son (Bill Gates, billionaire founder of Microsoft) and I are going to help you.”

And that is exactly what happened. After decades of Schultz leading the company, today Starbucks has 36,000 stores in 83 countries.

In the morning I often pray at the Orlando Torah Academy. Today the principal Rabbi Yerachmiel Kalter addressed the young men after the prayers ended and offered an inspiring message from this week’s Torah portion.

We are told about the concept of a wayward son, a thieving and gluttonous young man whom the Jewish community is obligated to rein in. If it can be ascertained that he will eventually commit murder, the law is that he is preemptively put to death instead. There is a caveat, however.

If this rebellious man’s parents still love him, if they still see and believe in his goodness, we do not punish him. But if community elders see objectively his increasingly problematic behavior, why do they not take action?

The principal explained that when someone truly believes in another person, that itself can help rehabilitate them. Confidence building is not only compassionate but transformative.

And who knows – like in Seattle in the 1980’s, we might in turn trigger a revolution in a whole industry, society, or the Heavens themselves.