One of the most powerful moments in Schultz's speech came when he described visiting Rwanda after the genocide and learning the concept of 'ubuntu' — a Bantu philosophy that translates roughly as 'I am because of you' or 'I am what I am because of who we all are.' The idea resonated deeply with Schultz's own experience. He had built Starbucks not as a solo achievement but as a collective effort — from the baristas who created the customer experience to the coffee farmers in developing countries whose livelihoods depended on fair trade practices. Schultz told the graduates that the greatest myth in American culture was the 'self-made' success story. No one succeeds alone, he argued, and the most fulfilling achievements are those that lift others up along the way.