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

A riches-to-rags story about a former advertising executive who, after losing his high-paying job and developing a brain tumor, took a job at Starbucks under a young African-American manager, whose positive character and disadvantaged background helped the author heal and understand the value of respecting others.

Michael Gates Gill is the son of New Yorker writer Brendan Gill and he was a creative director at J. Walter Thompson Advertising where he was employed for over 25 years. He currently 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.