The CEO of Starbucks grew up in public housing in Brooklyn, N.Y., with his parents and siblings. His mother, who didn't finish high school, pushed her children to believe in their ability to succeed.

Schultz's father, a truck driver, encouraged his son's love of sports. And after scoring a football scholarship to Northern Michigan University, Schultz became the first person in his family to go to college.

"It turned out I wasn't as good a football player as I thought, and I ended up not playing after all," Schultz wrote in his book, "Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time." To afford school he took out loans, bartended and even occasionally sold his blood.

He ended up employed by Starbucks as its marketing director in the 1980s, and eventually worked his way up to its chief. Under his leadership, the small Seattle coffee chain grew into the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 5,500 cafes in 50 countries -- and counting.