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

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Now in paperback, the national bestselling riches-to-rags true story of an advertising executive who had it all, then lost it alland 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 Americas 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.

Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...

1 out of 5 stars

What a RIDICULOUS and utterly PREDICTABLE book! November 17, 2008
PUH-LEASE! Spare me the all too predictable story line. Educated yuppie loses high powered job- obtains employment at retail foodservice (in this case, coffee) outlet- learns to appreciate and live like the 'wage slave' schlubs. GIVE ME A BREAK! Anyone in their right mind, who has worked long and hard for a higher education, with excellent job experience and pay to boot, who has to radically 'downsize' to a lowly, servile teen job, would be in the throes of a major depression and highly dissapointed in his/her misfortune. But apparently not this buffoon... unless, of course, he can capitalize on it by concocting a bunch of B.S. in order to write a book about an unconventional topic! Like P.T. Barnum said, "there's a sucker born every minute." Don't be that sucker and read this drivel!

3 out of 5 stars

good, not great November 10, 2008

About: Biography of Gill, an ad exec who gets fired, has an affair, gets his mistress pregnant, gets divorced and gets offered and accepts a job as a barista at Starbucks.

Pros: Mostly enjoyable, positive, light and easy read.

Cons: Switches from the present to tales about the past often and it can get confusing. Name drops famous people he has met (although this may have been done to set up a contrast between "then" and "now" in his life). Chapters a bit long. Says coworker Anthony is 19 and notes that Frank Sinatra died before Anthony was even born. This isn't true, Sinatra died in 1998. Epilogue would have been nice.

4 out of 5 stars

Engaging Book, but Gill is More Devoted to His Work Than to His Family November 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I really enjoyed the book and as a previous reviewer noted, it gives you a great amount of appreciation for Starbucks. The book is really about how a self-centered yuppie learns that it is better to give than to receive. It is more fulfilling to serve others than to be served by others. I never thought that a book about learning how to be a coffee barista would be so engaging and interesting, but it was.

However, M. Douglas is certainly right when he notes that Gill has always been more devoted to his work than to his family. That holds true in Gill's second life: He is more devoted to his Starbucks family than to his flesh and blood family.

Gill also skims over the topic of his marriage and makes no apology for being a adulterer and a cheater, though he does express remorse for not being a better dad.

Gill's personal flaws and his seeming unawareness of them mar what is otherwise a very enjoyable book.

2 out of 5 stars

Gill still doesn't get it November 3, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is a quick, easy read. It is relentlessly positive and borders on corporate PR for Starbucks. I do give the auhtor great credit for his enthusiasm and embracing a corporate culture and hard work even when it might have been embarrassing or difficult.

I came away, ultimately, with a tremendous respect for Starbucks, but not much regard for Michael Gates Gill.

His great tale of being a normal working man came after he had no one to support but himself. I saw his Starbucks adventure as a second adolescence for him -- just him, his chosen path, and no other responsibilities. Was this really that different than his self-indulgent career at the advertising agency and the absentee fatherhood it brought with it? The author seemed to miss this parallel entirely.

The author's great tale of personal victory came after he had already cheated and failed his family. How do you not tell your wife you're having a baby with another woman until after it's happened? Gill talked endlessly of the steps Starbucks took to respect its employees, but the steps he took to mend things with his family -- talking to them for a few minutes when they visited his store, seeing his son play lacrosse a couple times a year, emailing his daughter now and then -- seemed to fall far short of the standard Starbucks set for interpersonal relationships. Gill's coworkers showed Gill more respect and care than Gill showed his own family. He was never apologetic about his absenteeism and infidelities, citing his sexual needs and a cold marriage in an off-hand manner, as if that was plenty of explanation. At least he managed to feel sorry on a basic level about the apathy he had shown for his children's lives, but that was as far as his reform managed to get.

I don't go to Starbucks, so I have no rooting interest. But I came away from this book with a solid respect for their organization and the way they treat their employees. I wish I could say the same for the author.

5 out of 5 stars

From Untalented Emperor to Confident Citizen October 30, 2008
"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?

Good Grape Wine Company