How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else
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Format: Paperback
ISBN: 1592404049
ISBN-13: 9781592404049
Publisher: Gotham
Release Date: September, 2008
Length: 272 Pages
Weight: Unavailable
Dimensions: 7.01 X 4.49 X 0.87 inches
Language: English
   
   

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

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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 ...
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Customer Reviews

  From Untalented Emperor to Confident Citizen

"How Starbucks Saved my Life" is a bit like the memoir "From Emperor to Citizen", where China's former King gains self-respect and becomes the worker he should've been. Micheal Gill was a top-paid guy in a top advertising firm all his adult life, then was let go and slid downward. It wasn't until he went to work at Starbucks that he found any purpose in life.
Gill may have been "a son of privilege, but he really had no talent or skill. He was born to an upper-class family, and straight out of college he got a gravy job at a top ad firm. But after decades there, a new executive (haf his age) fires him. By age 60 he's had an affair, lost his wife, his home, his family, and his money. The truth is, this guy was reckless and never gave any thought to the future.
Back in the early 1990's, high-salaried guys were getting laid in droves. I knew a guy who worked for Trump, then got laid off. His wife had to work long hours in order to keep their house and send the kids to private school. When I asked my Mom why the guy didn't just take any job he could, she told me "he's an educated man, and he doesn't want to be the deli counter man at a local restaurant." My Dad didn't have this problem. He kept his high-paid job through the recession. That's because my Dad kept the future in mind and had a backup plan.
In today's shaky economy, this book can set a standard. Working in the service sector isnt downward mobility; it's opportunity! If Pu Yi could go from unskilled, untalented Emperor to being a gardener, why wouldn't Gill go from being an untalented, unskilled executive to qualified barista?
 
  Nothing gold can stay

Michael Gill Gates thought he was at the top of his game in a big New York advertising firm having given the company years of service, but he was expendable....After being fired and making stupid choices he finds himself nearly penniless. He happens to be in Starbucks while they are having a hiring fair. When he is offered a job, he accepts.
Working at Starbucks he learns the important things in life...caring for others and respect for all!!!
As the proverb tells us "Nothing gold can stay." Life is impermanent we can go from riches to rags in the blink of an eye. If we are fortunate, like the author, we will have the courage to bury our egos and take what is offered. It is by making our lives our offering to others that we find peace.
This book is a well written page turner as Gates describes how he touches the edge of oblivian and comes back to be a far better human being. This is a particularly important book for our time and age. There are more than a few Wallstreets executives who would do well to go to work at Starbucks.Read this book and you'll understand why.
 
  Good story, great message about life priorities.

I got it yesterday and already almost finished with it. Good story with a great message about life priorities and how they can be misaligned, and how hardships can force us to see life with renewed clarity. Good writing style and easy reading.
 
  GT Book Review

The book starts off as a man of luxury in his "safe-zone" and how he gets forced out of it, aka he is fired from his job. He desperatly mourns over his lost job and how his new agency is failing quickly. He happens to go to Starbucks during one of their open house hirings and is offered a job as a joke. He reluctantly accepts it, as he is greatly in debt, and begins to work at his new job.
He struggles to give up his old respect-demanding tendencies and starts to learn how to serve as a humble person. As he improves at his job he becomes part of the family that exists at the Starbucks he works at. Afer many months of working with them, though, he is offered a spot at the Starbucks much closer to his apartment and reluctantly accepts it. His last day he celebrates lat into the night with his fellow friends, and former employees.

GREAT book
 
  A Hopeful Self-Examination with a Shot of Espresso

A suprisingly insightful book that melds the author's fascinating list of acquaintances, Starbucks store culture, and his reflections on his own struggles and failures. A typical self-introspection book this is not. The author humbly reveals his failures and rewards the reader with charming remembrances intertwined with his current day lessons learned. This is a very good read.