Crystal and my partners at Starbucks, like Kester and Charlie, had given me a chance to work and live and see things a new way. The least I could do was to help them by not reverting to my old, prideful, control-freak self. Yes, I had to admit, I had been a control freak, just as much as Ford or any other client. I had loved ordering people to work overtime or change a headline or even bring me a cup of coffee....I had been a bad boss. It was time to be a real good Partner. I promised myslef that I would not get so pumped up with ambition or a crazy self-righteous pride in anything I did that I lost my perspective again. I had a picture of letting my old life go, like you would discard a damp and smelly pair of old swimming trunks. I had traded my pin-striped suit for a green apron. A Master of the Universe costume for something that said was there to serve - not to rule. You can't serve if you try to control the people you serve, I realized. I wasn't some know-it-all authority, a pompous lifeguard ordering people around on the beach. I was just another swimmer, now riding a wave I'd never known existed.