How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else - Softcover

Gill, Michael Gates

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1592404049 ISBN 13: 9781592404049

Publisher: Avery, 2008

Synopsis

Now in paperback, the national bestselling riches-to-rags true story of an advertising executive who had it all, then lost it all—and was finally redeemed by his new job, and his twenty-eight-year-old boss, at Starbucks.

In his fifties, Michael Gates Gill had it all: a mansion in the suburbs, a wife and loving children, a six-figure salary, and an Ivy League education. But in a few short years, he lost his job, got divorced, and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. With no money or health insurance, he was forced to get a job at Starbucks. Having gone from power lunches to scrubbing toilets, from being served to serving, Michael was a true fish out of water.

But fate brings an unexpected teacher into his life who opens his eyes to what living well really looks like. The two seem to have nothing in common: She is a young African American, the daughter of a drug addict; he is used to being the boss but reports to her now. For the first time in his life he experiences being a member of a minority trying hard to survive in a challenging new job. He learns the value of hard work and humility, as well as what it truly means to respect another person.

Behind the scenes at one of America’s most intriguing businesses, an inspiring friendship is born, a family begins to heal, and, thanks to his unlikely mentor, Michael Gill at last experiences a sense of self-worth and happiness he has never known before.

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About this title

About the Author:

The son of New Yorker writer Brendan Gill, Michael Gates Gill was a creative director at J. Walter Thompson Advertising, where he was employed for over twenty-five years. He lives in New York within walking distance of the Starbucks store where he works, and has no plans to retire from what he calls the best job he’s ever had.

From AudioFile:

Michael Gates Gills story of being pushed out of an alpha male job and forced to work in a service job is both entertaining and compelling. Gills insecurities, class consciousness, and poor relationship with his self-absorbed father compounded his fall from high-flying marketing executive to retail grunt who found himself serving coffee to the kind of person he used to be. Most poignantly, his Starbucks job led to important life lessons through his experiences with African-Americans and others whom he says he looked down on in his previous career. With his pleasing elocution, sensitivity to nuances in dialogue, and obvious appreciation for the authors experiences, Dylan Baker carries the weight of this story without being heavy-handed with its morality lesson. T.W. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Avery
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1592404049
• ISBN 13: 9781592404049
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272