Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I loved this book! It was very easy to read and I love true stories. The author lost everything; his job, home, wife, etc. and started over at the bottom accepting a job in retail at Starbucks. Over the months he developed caring friendships with his coworkers, customers, and adult children while learning new job skills 'beneath' his former high-level position. Mike redeemed himself after making some very poor choices and learned valuable life lessons about respecting others and the dignity of work. A great story about a work ethic that is rarely on display nowadays and the resulting pride and self-respect of a job well done. This is a keeper on my bookshelf; I'll read it again.

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.

When I picked this book up and first started reading it, I thought I would really enjoy it. It's about a former rich high and mighty ad exec losing his job and having to work at Starbucks and realizing he actually likes it. And the parts of the book where he was learning to be humble and appreciate the little things in life, and work with people different than him were very enjoyable to read. But sadly, each chapter would have a flash back of his rich arrogant life, with no reason or purpose, and he would shamelessly name drop. He might be rushing to the train to get to his starbucks shift on time, and it will for some reason, cause him to recall the time he worked with Jackie O for a fundraiser, and she personally thanked him because he saved the day. Or another time he is talking to a co worker who is having tea, and this makes him want to write for 3 pages about the time he met the Queen of England, and how impressed she was with him. That and his cheesy sales tactics he loves to talk about...you know, the kind smarmy motivational speakers use, really knocked the book down quite a bit. I ended up flipping past several pages a chapter. But again, when he was his new humble self, i enjoyed reading about his adventures. But how humble is your new self when your book, which is entirely about how humble and happy you are in your small life is about half filled with celeb name dropping and achievements galore?

Read it, put it down, and said, "I don't buy it." Here are the things that didn't ring true for me:
1) Michael Gates Gill comes from an extremely wealthy family. His father died in 1997. He must have left an estate worth many millions of dollars. Even split among several kids, Michael had to have inherited big money.
2) What American of that class does not have ANY 401(k)or investment income?
3) I believe NY has no-fault divorce. Even if he felt guilty about his affair, I doubt his wife got EVERYTHING--and what they had was a lot. If she got a multi-million-dollar house, he had to get a lot as well.
4) He still eats at the Oyster Bar and goes to his accountant, who tells him not to eat at the Oyster Bar. Tip: people living on Starbucks money don't have accountants. He went to his acct. because he has money to manage.
5) He says he needs to get insurance for his young son. But the mother is a doctor. I suspect that kid is covered.
6) Nobody loves Starbucks this much. The paean to Starbucks is way over the top.

Bottom line, here's an ad executive who wasn't making the money or getting the praise he was used to. He probably was very down. But it sure seems to me like he decided to take a low-paying job and write a book about what that was like. For a much better look at how people who do this kind of work actually live and work, I recommend Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed."

He also lets himself off the hook with regard to his lack of fatherhood mighty easily. He "tried" to see his young son "several times a week," but he gave Starbucks "total availability." Has he learned any lesson at all about not living for your work? Because that sure seems like what he does with Starbucks--just for less money.

All the reviews that say, a must for any executive, etc., make me think that there must be a lot of people who've never had any lower-level jobs or been out there looking. I don't need this book to know that lower-level jobs are often harder than high-level ones, and that there is dignity in doing one's best no matter what the job is. Thank goodness.

Bottom line: I didn't care for him, and I don't believe in the underlying "truth" of this book.

Starbucks tends to get a bad rap when it comes to its effect on our communities and our social lives often viewed as a corporate Satan hell bent on destroying our way of life. Michael Gates Gill has another point of view. After being forced out of a career working as a ranking member within the corporate hierarchy, Gill finds himself out of luck and running low on business prospects. He ends up in a Starbucks and waywardly steps into a position as a 64 year old barista.

Gill's story follows his own path learning the treacherous ropes of the coffee trade and reflects on his transformation from cruel corporate lackey to an enlightened employee who throws himself into a job he never would have wished on himself before. While at times How Starbucks Saved My Life comes off as Starbucks propaganda, Gill's transformation is very genuine. Starbucks places him into the harsh world that he has somehow avoided during his rather privileged life.

How Starbucks Saved My Life holds nothing back. Gill readily confesses the mistakes he has made throughout his life and looks for a way to pay his penance. His interaction with customers and his fellow employees shows how fulfilling life can be when we are not caught up in the pursuit of a career or a better life. Gill's account is sometimes painful as he reveals his past sins and the tragedy of the sacrifices he chose during his former life. How Starbucks Saved My Life provides an unparalleled perspective into the things that are truly important in life and reminds the reader what they might be missing or could miss if they don't place their focus in the right place.

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.

This is a great book & a very quick read! I saw it at my old roommate's house and after flipping around in it and reading the back flap I knew I wanted to get it for myself!

Author Michael Gates Gill describes his journey from big advertising executive to losing his job and subsequently ruining his marriage. His middle age crisis led to an affair and a child out of wedlock and his wife divorces him. He ventures into a Starbucks in one of his power suits trying to call new clients, and is offered a job, which turns out to be the best job of his life.

I like his story because it emphases the importance of hard work and treating people like people - instead of looking down on them or like they are just here to serve us. He learns to respect people in all walks of life and stops valuing people by the size of their bank account. He learns to live simpler, with less stuff and status, which never fulfilled him to begin with, a lesson I think we'd all be better of exploring. I liked the process of him being disabused of his hubris and self-importance and discovering a job he loved where he was valued. He was proud of his blue collar job because he knew, despite his lower income, that he was working with people who made him a better person and looked out for his best interest, as opposed to a corporate cut-throat rat race.

The true story of a wealthy, soulless, out-of-touch guy who loses everything and ends up working for Starbucks. This could have been a better story but his writing style is overly self-depricating. He paints himself as witless and sappy, and his redundant stories of his celebrity friends are a digression to fill up pages.

I couldn't believe that such a hyperbolic title could fit the contents inside, but I soon became a believer. This book is an easy read and shares lessons in ethics and living in the corporate world, and how even the most powerful can fall. Michael Gates Gill tells a fascinating story about pulling himself up by his bootstraps that all ages will enjoy.

heart warming story of learning how be humble b/c of bad personal and career choices. Mike learns that everyone has their own untold story. He also learns to understand his prejudgement of others has limited his life as he humbles himself to be challenged to break his view of stereotypes. Wonderful story of personal redemption in a riches to rags story of learning to live a fulfilled life.