“We have no patent on anything we do and anything we do can be copied by anyone else. But you can’t copy the heart and the soul and the conscience of the company.”

-Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks

I really enjoyed reading this quote. I get so irritated when I see one company ripping off another just to try and make a buck by copying their success.

You see it all the time with my now second favorite brand (Snoloha is first, of course), Life is good. The 2 brothers who started this great company have worked extremely hard and have been through the ups and downs of starting a business and finding their way in the market. And now that they have reached a significant level of success, there seem to be quite a few rip-offs out there trying to hitch their wagon to the Life is good star. Laziness.

But as Mr. Schultz says, “you can’t copy the heart and the soul and the conscience of the company”. And that is what separates Life is good from the copycats. They are running a marathon to do good in the world over the course of many years, and not a short sprint to make a quick buck.

Someday, there may be Snoloha copycats out there. But they will not be able to even come close to copying the heart, and the soul, and the conscience of the company.