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

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

by Michael Gates Gill (Goodreads Author)

3.34 of 5 stars 3.34 · rating details · 5,022 ratings · 1,204 reviews

In his fifties, Michael Gates Gill had it all: a big house in the suburbs, a loving family, and a top job at an ad agency with a six-figure salary. By the time he turned sixty, he had lost everything except his Ivy League education and his sense of entitlement. First, he was downsized at work. Next, an affair ended his twenty-year marriage. Then, he was diagnosed with a sl...more In his fifties, Michael Gates Gill had it all: a big house in the suburbs, a loving family, and a top job at an ad agency with a six-figure salary. By the time he turned sixty, he had lost everything except his Ivy League education and his sense of entitlement. First, he was downsized at work. Next, an affair ended his twenty-year marriage. Then, he was diagnosed with a slow-growing brain tumor, prognosis undetermined. Around the same time, his girlfriend gave birth to a son. Gill had no money, no health insurance, and no prospects.

One day as Gill sat in a Manhattan Starbucks with his last affordable luxury�a latté�brooding about his misfortune and quickly dwindling list of options, a 28-year-old Starbucks manager named Crystal Thompson approached him, half joking, to offer him a job. With nothing to lose, he took it, and went from drinking coffee in a Brooks Brothers suit to serving it in a green uniform. For the first time in his life, Gill was a minority--the only older white guy working with a team of young African-Americans. He was forced to acknowledge his ingrained prejudices and admit to himself that, far from being beneath him, his new job was hard. And his younger coworkers, despite having half the education and twice the personal difficulties he�d ever faced, were running circles around him.

The other baristas treated Gill with respect and kindness despite his differences, and he began to feel a new emotion: gratitude. Crossing over the Starbucks bar was the beginning of a dramatic transformation that cracked his world wide open. When all of his defenses and the armor of entitlement had been stripped away, a humbler, happier and gentler man remained. One that everyone, especially Michael�s kids, liked a lot better.

The backdrop to Gill's story is a nearly universal cultural phenomenon: the Starbucks experience. In How Starbucks Saved My Life, we step behind the counter of one of the world's best-known companies and discover how it all really works, who the baristas are and what they love (and hate) about their jobs. Inside Starbucks, as Crystal and Mike�s friendship grows, we see what wonders can happen when we reach out across race, class, and age divisions to help a fellow human being.(less)

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published September 20th 2007 by Gotham (first published January 1st 2007)

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Mar 07, 2008 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of starbucks, mitch albom and happy endings

someone left this on my plane trip to sydney and i picked it up. its so refreshing after reading that piece of crap eat pray love. im anti-starbucks (sorry jessica!) but i do have to say that this was a great book and it made me a little less anti starbucks. its a great story about an older gentleman who loses his successful job in advertising (his own mentor fired him) and finds himself at a starbucks one day where they happen to be conducting an open house. hes mistaken for a job applicant and...more

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Oct 07, 2008 Jamie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Author Michael Gates Gill was handed a cushy job as an executive at a major advertising agency, but he had sacrificed a lot of time with his family and opportunities for personal development to get where was. Eventually Gill is unceremoniously fired from that job for being too old and too expensive, and soon after THAT he has an affair that leaves him with a broken marriage and a new son. Gill is edging ever closer to being financially destitute when a 28-year old African American woman managing...more Author Michael Gates Gill was handed a cushy job as an executive at a major advertising agency, but he had sacrificed a lot of time with his family and opportunities for personal development to get where was. Eventually Gill is unceremoniously fired from that job for being too old and too expensive, and soon after THAT he has an affair that leaves him with a broken marriage and a new son. Gill is edging ever closer to being financially destitute when a 28-year old African American woman managing a Starbucks almost accidentally offers this old White man a job as a lowly Starbucks barista. And so begins his re-evaluation of all his assumptions about everything from what makes him happy to the ugliness of class and race inequality.

Okay, as far as memoirs go, this isn't a bad hook. It was good enough to make me read the book, but the problem is that How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else is so badly written and so badly executed on every level that it's a shoe-in for the worst book I'll read this year. The ONLY good thing about this book is that it's giving me the chance to use, without irony, the word "maudlin" to describe it.

How Starbucks Saved My Life has got all the art and subtlety of an After School Special for the geriatric set. Not only is the prose clumsy and boring, but Gill seems intent on explaining every single reaction or sentiment you're supposed to have. After someone pays him a compliment, for example, Gill looks you in the figurative eye and tells you "This made me happy. Because blah blah blabity blah blah..." and he goes on for a whole paragraph explaining something that he thinks you're too emotionally retarded to pick up on by yourself. Generally every sentiment and insight and thought is telegraphed in this manner, with the author telling you exactly how you're supposed to feel or interpret the events of the story, the telling of which is often completely lost in this mawkish exposition.

And this isn't surprising, considering the author's background. He may be making change and scrubbing toilets now, but Gill's legacy as an advertising man is all too apparent here. Worse, most of the book reads like some kind of stealth marketing for Starbucks, with everything --EVERYTHING-- about the place sold and oversold as some kind of realm of mythical happiness for hourly workers where the baristas fart sunshine and the espresso machines dispense unicorn giggles. With the single exception of one bitchy co-worker who tries to get Gill written up for mishandling his cash register, everyone he works with is an overflowing fount of happiness, good intentions, and sentimental epiphanies.

It's not that I mind some of these things or think these people can't exist, but the ENTIRE experience is unbelievably hyped and presented in such an artificially positive light that I no longer felt like I was reading an authentic memoir or even a halfway credible fiction, which is the same problem I had with A Million Little Pieces even if it skewed in a slightly different emotional direction. So it's not only poorly written, but transparently disingenuous as well. Like, I suppose, most other advertising.
(less)

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Sep 15, 2008 cat rated it 1 of 5 stars

i wish there were a Goodreads shelf for "read a little bit, threw up in my mouth, and returned the book to the library as quickly as humanly possible because i felt dirty with it in my hands".

DO NOT read this book (or attempt to listen to it on CD, as i did). the NYTimes does a way better review than i ever could, so go here http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/boo... or just read this snippet from the review and back away from the book quickly:

"From there the book lapses into a four-step: Gill st...more

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Mar 14, 2009 Cortney rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was impressed with the depth of introspection that Mr Gill explored. While reading this book, I was reminded of another book I recently read- Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America by Barbara Ehrenreich. The books were similar and yet so very different. Ms Ehrenreich conducted a sort of social experiment in which she took on low-wage jobs to see how people manage to make ends meet on minimum wage. Mr Gill took on a job at Starbucks after he lost everyt...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Sarah H. Alshareef rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 52-books-2011

i admit that i have decided to read this book because of my desperate need for a job that adds a value to my life, So i read it to get some inspirations and motivations. Frankly, I hate Starbucks, i rarely go there and if i did i only order a frappuccino with extra caramel, plus, i don't drink coffee. As i go through Michael or Mike "as his partners at Starbucks call him" life, i can feel his desperate need for a job after he had been fired. He is so optimistic, determined, tolerant, and kind pe...more

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Oct 06, 2008 Kaye rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobooks, non_fiction

Oh my, this book went on and on. The parts I liked: Michael Gates Gill trying to fit in with his new life. What I didn't: everything else. Basically, the flaws are these: Gill repeats himself ad nauseum, as if I can't remember the role that a barista plays in a Starbucks. Each chapter involves a recap where he re-explains how to weigh the cash, or that he has to pour coffee and take money. Ugh. I found the repeated explanations kind of insulting, to tell the truth. Also, the entire thing reads l...more

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Apr 21, 2008 Holly rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Starbucks employees... I mean "Partners"

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Ok, I feel guilty about rating someone's personal transformation story poorly. But I also don't want to skew my ratings anymore than I already do.

I picked up this book at the library because the title made me roll my eyes and gag simultaneously. Then I saw that it was about a rich white guy who loses his fancy job and ends up working at Starbucks and learns to be a better person, etc. I know that makes some of you roll your eyes and gag, but I love people's individual stories and I am pretty fo...more Ok, I feel guilty about rating someone's personal transformation story poorly. But I also don't want to skew my ratings anymore than I already do.

I picked up this book at the library because the title made me roll my eyes and gag simultaneously. Then I saw that it was about a rich white guy who loses his fancy job and ends up working at Starbucks and learns to be a better person, etc. I know that makes some of you roll your eyes and gag, but I love people's individual stories and I am pretty forgiving when inspiration and life lessons are involved.

But this book read like a Starbucks marketing piece. I actually did not let myself read the entire book jacket until the end, just in case it did turn out to be published by Starbucks. It isn't, as far as I can tell, but man oh man can this guy gush about that company. I mean, I know they have great health benefits for their employees, but he lost credibility when he said that he loves their chocolate chip cookies. No way, not possible. Also, I refuse to believe that Starbucks is the world's best company and so unique and different from the rest of American capitalism. Everyone knows that Google holds that spot! (Kidding. Mostly.)

Plus, from the acknowledgments at the end, it seems that they are planning (or were planning?) to make it into a movie starring... Tom Hanks. (Who else?!) No, I am not kidding. I guess it will be like "Pursuit of Happyness" in reverse.

AND I was actually a little disappointed by his personal transformation. Yes, he learned about the value of hard work and not to judge people, etc. But he came across as having no self-confidence in anything, and it seemed sort of patronizing. (Seriously, you went to Yale and were a big advertising exec for 30 years and now you're terrified to make coffee drinks?)

The book was written poorly, but I can't decide if maybe that was intentional, to make it accessible to everyone. But I am guessing not. There were some cool stories about the famous people he met, though (back when he was rich, and yes, it did come across as obnoxious name-dropping) such as Warhol, Hemingway, Frost. I can just tell you those stories in person though... perhaps over a cup of mediocre coffee?(less)

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Feb 02, 2009 J.M. Blevins rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Okay, I have a confession to make: I hate, hate, hate rich people. All the rich people I've known act like I don't know sh*t because I don't have as much money as they do.

Michael Gates Gill isn't rich, he's mega-uber-elitist rich. His Dad, Brendan Gill, was one of my favorite writers at the New Yorker, though, so I gave him a shot. He didn't disappoint, at least on the writing and the "rich people deserve to be hated" problem I have.

His life before his downfall justified all my hatred. The self...more

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Feb 13, 2009 Elizabeth added it

I'm not exactly sure how many stars to give this book. First off I hated the title, but then I found myself crying while I read it. What has happened to me? I think I was hijacked by some sort of crazy case of sentimentality, but then again, I have to admit that the tone of the book was really quite moving. The writing style is extremely simple, but in each page you could find a lot of optimism and joy.

In a way, I think this book is a great foil to Eat Pray and Love. Both writers are skilled wi...more

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Jan 05, 2009 Joyce McCombs rated it 5 of 5 stars

A friend recommended this and I thought it would be a bit dry and business like, but it turned out to be an exhilarating read, full of every day wisdom, real people and situations that anyone can identify with. The author, a high powered business man who loses everything (marriage, kids, high paying job) takes a job at Starbucks that literally changes his life. The pace of the book is quick, and the lessons he learns are honest, and there's no heavy handed moral tone at all - just profound grati...more

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Nov 18, 2008 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've been super scattered on reading actual books lately, so I've switched to audio books to keep me going while driving around and while knitting. This was on my list of books to read and since the library had it, I gave it a go.

This is a memoir type book about a man, who was born to privilege and lived a life of privilege. His parents had money, but not always time. He went to an Ivy League school and got a great job right out of college. Gill was a top executive for a long time, enjoying all...more

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Jan 02, 2008 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: lovers of the 'bucks

The premise of this memoir is that a 64 year old former exec. is fired from his lucrative job in advertising only to find himself working at a Starbucks store. As you may have gathered by the title, the author actually found that his job schlepping coffee was more rewarding (though not more lucrative) than his former life of privilege. I enjoyed this book, but the flaws lie largely in the fact that the author is not a writer--nor, apparently was he very aware of the world around him. When he tal...more

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Nov 08, 2008 P'ster rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to P'ster by: Karen

While I appreciate the 'better late than never' spiritual awakening at the core of this memoir, it's also got to be the biggest product placement ad I've come across in a long while (case in point: I don't even frequent Starbucks and it made me crave a Mochachino). While feelgood tales will always abound of white folks, and white men specifically, realizing the lifelong racist, sexist, ageist, etc. attitudes that come with power and privilege, and, as in Michael Gates Gill's case, realizing that...more

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Jan 17, 2009 Laura rated it 1 of 5 stars

I forced myself to finish this. It was predictable, slow and painfully drawn-out. The entire book is basically this man talking about coffee and making coffee and how he has trouble making coffee and why he likes making coffee. He talks about how he used to work at an ad agency and what he learned at the ad agency and how it's different from making coffee and how he loves making coffee but he has trouble making coffee and he was good at working at an ad agency and how it's different from making...more

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Jan 22, 2009 Jensownzoo rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-reads, biographies

You know, this book didn't have any great revelations or really any surprises. Where this book shined was as a character study--the author had a truly authentic voice that I found fascinating. Also appreciated that there was little to no whining in this book about lost privileges--the author seems to appreciate the journey that he is on.

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Jan 05, 2009 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another memoir to add to my list-The lessons learned by this author were very touching and he seemd to tell it in such an honest and soul searching way..An interesting story which highlights the concept of "serendipity" and points out the "humaness" of many people -not to be realized unless we happen to come in contactwith them..

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Mar 14, 2008 Wendi rated it 1 of 5 stars

I listened to the audiobook version at work, which may have tainted my listening a bit. The strangely melancholic piano music didn't help things. I found it interesting that the writer is from and lives in Bronxville, and even ends up working at the Bronxville Starbucks (which, yeah, I've been to), but I didn't believe in him and the story he was telling. His constant apologizing for how horrible he'd been to his children and his unthinking endorsement of all things Starbucks ... none of that se...more

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May 02, 2009 Cheryl Pashlin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Most enjoyable.........almost wants to make you work at Starbucks. I found this book uplifting......it takes a lot of courage to go from a high powered executive job to a coffee barrista and then to realize how much happier you really are.

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Sep 12, 2012 Blake Nelson rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thought this was going to be on a level of TUESDAY WITH MORRIE'S. And it was! But I enjoyed the bits of his family history and his famous father Brendan Gill.

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Jan 19, 2011 Kimberly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Meet Mike!

He's White!

He WAS rich... Came from a RICH family...

But, what have we all learned about men in power? They get mistresses / sideline ho's! Mike got a sideline ho - but, also gets her pregnant. Seeing that her husband now had a bastard child by his mistress, his wife leaves him and takes the kids.

Mike loses his job.

Mike loses his friends.

Mike is very sad. Poor Mike.

Things do not look well for our dear Mike. Until one day, while at Starbucks contemplating life and how White privilege has...more

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Mar 28, 2009 Marvin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I am so torn about reviewing this book. There are some things I like about it and some things I didn't. First, it is a uplifting story. A man of privilege entering the down-and-outs take a job at Starbucks and learns the meaning of hard work and caring for others. It is written in a light and casual style that makes it entertaining and goes easy down the gullet like a peppermint mocha frappuccino. But when he writes about his childhood in a rich and educated family (he is the son of New Yorker w...more

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Mar 14, 2009 adventurat rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, non-fiction

I borrowed this book from a co-worker, who had picked it up at Starbucks. The description (above) completely overstates what interested me about this book, and the significance of the lives and events it relates, I think.

I was intrigued to learn more (based on my co-worker's retailing of the first few chapters) about how a man who had worked a job he hadn't even had to try to get (it was all set for him when he graduated from Yale), for twenty-five years, and had been at the top of his industry...more I borrowed this book from a co-worker, who had picked it up at Starbucks. The description (above) completely overstates what interested me about this book, and the significance of the lives and events it relates, I think.

I was intrigued to learn more (based on my co-worker's retailing of the first few chapters) about how a man who had worked a job he hadn't even had to try to get (it was all set for him when he graduated from Yale), for twenty-five years, and had been at the top of his industry, had survived being fired to make way for younger blood at the age of fifty-three, and how he had gone from a life of affluence and privilege to taking the subway and wearing a green Starbucks apron.

The answer to the first question is "not very successfully", and to the second is "by accident, and for the health insurance".

Being the only white face among the African-American workforce at a Starbucks on Broadway in New York, being sixty-three and male and working for a 28-year-old woman, going from cruising along on connections and privilege to being the best cleaner of toilets and scrubber of grout makes for an interesting story.

The author's first year at Starbucks (the period covered in the book) is replete with revelations about what is important and what is not, and it's satisfying to watch him derive satisfaction from doing a job that he would never have noticed before, and to being invisible to the people he once knew who he encounters at work, because of the uniform.

Although there is reference to improvements in the author's relationships with his children, his family get very little airtime; the book focuses primarily on the new relationships, especially with boss Crystal and the other Partners (Starbucks parlance for 'employees'), and on one level the whole thing reads like one great big advertisement for Starbucks as an employer and career foundation.

His past life of success, privilege and affluence gets fairly frequent mention, in the form of name and occasion dropping: working with Jackie O to help save Grand Central Station from demolition; committing a serious faux-pas before Queen Elizabeth, an encounter with Frank Sinatra. These were always in reference to some new revelation, but in some ways seemed self-conscious, a sort of desperate attempt to reclaim the life that had been taken from him (work) or that he had squandered (family).

The writing was good, though, and the story engaging, which outweighed the flaws, for me. (less)

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Feb 19, 2009 Ruanne rated it 2 of 5 stars

While I admire the concepts in this book (finding dignity in any sort of work, transforming one's life after a downfall, learning that people's skin pigmentation is not an indication of their character ) I just couldn't get past the writing style and the unadulterated worship of Starbucks' corporate culture. Gill writes simple declarative sentence after simple declarative sentence, until he sounds like what my 4th grader wrote like in 2nd grade. The exception to this is when he is talking about...more

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Jan 15, 2009 Karin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: work, retail, nonfiction, coffee, autobiography-memoir, donated-to-the-library, received-review-copy

After working many years with an advertising agency, Michael Gates Gill, age 60, is downsized. He starts up his own consulting firm, but after awhile the business fails to attract a steady clientele. Meanwhile, Gill must work through a number of personal problems that make it difficult to concentrate on his professional life and career. One day he finds himself in the midst of a Starbucks job fair – unemployed, depressed, and somewhat desperate. When his manager-to-be, Crystal Thompson, asks him...more

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Jan 05, 2009 Chris Clark rated it 3 of 5 stars

Started strong, finished weak. The book begins with every salaryman's nightmare -- the author (Michael Gill) is fired at the height of his career (and pay scale) without any real prospects for making a comparable living. The reversal of fortune is particularly galling for him, since beforehand he lived a life of easy privilege -- hobnobbing with Hemingway, Jackie Kennedy and others while living off of (and burning through) family money. The author's quick and candid juxtapositions between these...more

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May 05, 2013 Mark rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: autobiography, business, philosophy

Picked this up because I was travelling, it fit nicely into my cargo pocked, it was a short read, and a friend said I might enjoy it. The two stars is for the formulaic sappiness in this book-length (265 pages) advertisement for a ubiquitous multi-national corporation. Reaching for feel-good, tuesdays-with-Morrie-style audience, the book tries a bit too hard to make make some broader point about life and work. Also, the author's constant name dropping about his past was annoying, at first anyway...more Picked this up because I was travelling, it fit nicely into my cargo pocked, it was a short read, and a friend said I might enjoy it. The two stars is for the formulaic sappiness in this book-length (265 pages) advertisement for a ubiquitous multi-national corporation. Reaching for feel-good, tuesdays-with-Morrie-style audience, the book tries a bit too hard to make make some broader point about life and work. Also, the author's constant name dropping about his past was annoying, at first anyway.

Now that's out of the way, let me tell you what I did like about the book and why I do recommend it under certain circumstances. The late mid-life-crises gone horribly awry that found the author unemployed, divorced, financially embarrased, not to mention a new father - again, provides the springboard for some important life lessons in happiness. Work can be it's own reward, people in social strata beneath your own are often far more interesting, vital, and alive than you ever imagined. Sometimes they are far more competent than you realize because you are stuck there in your insulated bubble that protects you from competition with many of them. There is often life after monumental screw-ups. Service jobs aren't just for losers, etc... The author's descriptions of his transformation from "master of the universe" level business success to lowly toilet scrubber at Starbucks was entertaining, insightful, and I think illustrative of many issues with our society. His realizations that happiness can be found in occupations previously thought of as beneath himself were great. However, the economic reality of working at an entry-level, service sector job while alluded to in his book wasn't really explored.

I think his insights are useful, especially the awareness of others he was previously dismissive of and the surprise joy he experienced working in a service sector position that put him in constant communication with the consuming public. Some very nice lessons indeed. I applaud his transformation. I also recognize that Starbucks must have been delighted with their new convert and how his past education and experiences combined with his new found love of the working man (especially those partners in green aprons in every neighborhood Starbucks) conspired to create this advertisement hidden in a feel-good book for the middle class masses. I do hope his book sold enough copies to supplement his Starbucks salary enough to keep him firmly ensconced in his barrista lifestyle for many years to come. (less)

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May 02, 2013 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-audio

How Starbucks Saved My Life: a Son of Privilege Learsn to Live Like Everyone Else, by Michael Gates Gill, Narrated by Dyllan Baker, Produced by Penguin Audio Books, Downloaded from audible.com.

In his 50s, Michael Gates Gill had it all: a big house in the suburbs, a loving family, and a top job at an ad agency with a six-figure salary. By the
time he turned 60, he had lost everything except his Ivy League education and his sense of entitlement. First, he was downsized at work. Next, an affair
ended...more

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Apr 27, 2013 VaLinda Miller rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Michael Gates Gill – How Starbucks Saved My Life: The Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else - Paperback - $11.05. I was not feeling this book for a few pages. I would read a page or two, go back, and read a few more pages and then forgot about it. I brought it because of the title and thought it was funny and would be a funny read. Didn’t know it would resonate with my life. No ideal it would!

I’m not white, male and upper-class. Not even close to upper or middle class. I’m just a be...more Michael Gates Gill – How Starbucks Saved My Life: The Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else - Paperback - $11.05. I was not feeling this book for a few pages. I would read a page or two, go back, and read a few more pages and then forgot about it. I brought it because of the title and thought it was funny and would be a funny read. Didn’t know it would resonate with my life. No ideal it would!

I’m not white, male and upper-class. Not even close to upper or middle class. I’m just a beautiful, intelligent, gracious, fun loving, sociable, outgoing, gregarious (“I think I’m missing some other adjectives?”), “as a matter of fact, a few years ago, I taught these two white guys who I hired as a joke, to call me all of those adjectives when I would come into their presence.” Even to do this day, years later, they still do, but now they have added, “Crazy lady” at the end. Love those funny white guys, they were and are still cool.

As I was stating, I’m an African American working woman who has tried and still trying to stay Christian, hopeful and happy. It's not easy and I have fallen many times, but when I returned to reading this book, it started to reminded me how low I went.

No matter the color, religion, or whatever. When you are nose diving to the ground, you feel dejected, unhappy, and very discouraged. You don’t want a cure-all-drug, because you know, if you are smart, that it’s temporary. You want your “mojo” back. There’s even a book called, “MOJO: HOW TO GET IT, HOW TO KEEP IT, HOW TO GET IT BACK IF YOU LOSE IT” by Marshall Goldsmith - $12.99. What a laugh! I don’t think that will work either, it may help a bit. Gates book drew me back to a time just two years ago, that I felt, “what the hell am I living for.” “Why bother going on.” No one gives a damn and no one cares. Maybe I’ll be better offering leaving this earth and leaving something better for my kid. No, I’m not kidding, that’s how much this book affected me and that’s how I felt long time ago. Like a piece of crap. I got my “mojo” back by writing this blog and keeping my faith up. When I finished reading, It was a prayer, if you would, of a reminder to me over and over again and every day, that life is great and worth fighting for.

After losing his job, his wife and his baby mama mistress, 60 year old White guy Mike found himself sitting in Starbucks in his brooks brothers suit and asking, wondering and saying over and over again, why me? His life in corporate America, luxurious home with the perfect wife and kids and a six figure salary, was gone. He was told he is too old and not “in.” So the company laid him off. Sounds familiar?
While in Starbucks, reeling with gloom, Crystal, a young and vibrant African American woman, asked, “Would you be willing to work for me?” It was a job fair at Starbucks that day and Crystal just came up and asked him if he needed a job. She was there looking for people to hire for her own store. I don’t know what you or I would do, Mike said, “could she see that I was really one of life’s losers want a job at Starbucks”, “yes”, he said.
Mike has worked on some of the most famous advertisements in the world. Met some famous authors, such as Ernest Hemingway and is the son of Brendan Gill, a famous New Yorker writer, but he has never worked in a “retail” outfit. Become frightened to use a cash register. Over the next months, he meets with other young African Americans who work there and learned not only how his prejudgment of people, especially minorities was askew and completely wrong, but how real people live day to day. He learned to cleaned bathrooms (I hate that even at home); learn how to make variety of coffees, received quality medical insurance, which was almost a good as the company he use to work for. He feels old and tired each day trying to catch the subway(s) on time, getting to work on time, putting out trash, cleaning bathrooms, becoming a Batista, running a cash register and becoming a customer service representative. It’s a hard struggle, but each and every month, it becomes easier with a bit of prayers and faith. I know how he felt, I lived it.

He learned to asked for and accept forgiveness from his family. Became a better father to his youngest son. Build up his confidence, which was hard being surrounded by young, African American kids, who, I am happy to say, was not what is always displayed on TV and movies. Crystal, Tawana, Joann, and my favorite, Kester are written with intelligence, and great entrepreneur spirits. The kind of African American kids you want to read about. Mike says, “Crystal and Starbucks had saved me. Saved me from my pursuit of empty symbols, but also my anxiety about a fear-filled superficial life that hadn’t been, in the end, helpful or even enjoyable for me.”

I felt that way a few years ago. I was broke, depressed, lonely and tired. Felt old and saw more and younger "valley girls" women enter the place where I worked. How else am I to feel? My kid was graduating and I was pushing and moving money around to just pay the last four months of her tuition without getting another student loan. I was broke beyond broke and could not even get a part time job at McDonald’s. Come on, McDonald’s would not hire me? I thought, shit, they want young people too!!! Then my friend from out of town took me to dinner and I just let it all out. Didn't cry, I didn't have any more tears, just let every damn shitty thing out. She listened and said nothing. Then she offered to give me some money to tie me over. I told her no. I already owed bills, never wanted to owe a friend. It screws up the friendship and I didn't care if she said it's OK, you don't have to pay it back, but I did care.

We finished dinner and, I’m was still feeling pretty low, we stop at a store for coffee. I don't know, I went in there and smiled and asked for a small cup of coffee. I only had about 2 dollars on me and thinking what the hell am I going to do about gas for the car and lunch. Eat what's in the house dummy!! The guy took my order and I thought, I got nothing to lose, so I asked if there were any part time job openings. He asked me to wait and the manager came out and gave me an application. I sat there and filled it out and told her that I have a job and only wanted to work weekends. I figure that plug would help, even though I used that line many times, it didn't work before. She took my application and said she would call soon. “No she won't.” I figure, hey, I tried and will try again. I'm just at my end and no corner to turn around. The next day, she called. I got the job. It was so hard the first three weeks working 7 days days a week and getting home 9 or 10 at night, but as time gradually move forward, I leaned I too am not young, but not really old either. The bones may creak a little. I can’t stay up pay 11pm all of the time, but I got me. I got me back.
That’s why this book resonates with me so much. I was there in that black and very dark pit. I climbed out as Mike did working with people half my age and struggling with heavy equipment, long hours, sometimes rude customers and coming home tired and crying. Wondering how I was going to make it. It got better and so did this book.

Now two years later, I’m still working at the coffee shop, but now my regular job is going thru some very tough times and I’m back in that pit. This time though, ““Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9 NIV).(less)

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Mar 31, 2013 Robert Slaven rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this book because I was having one of THOSE Saturday mornings. Have you ever had one of those mornings when you just need something… something to read and since your wife is one of those really wonderfully bookish people you happen to have just stacks and stacks of books handy and can pick something rather randomly and sit down to read it? It’s rather like living in a library staffed by an impossibly sweet and wonderful person who you also happen to get to sleep next to. At any rate, I di...more I read this book because I was having one of THOSE Saturday mornings. Have you ever had one of those mornings when you just need something… something to read and since your wife is one of those really wonderfully bookish people you happen to have just stacks and stacks of books handy and can pick something rather randomly and sit down to read it? It’s rather like living in a library staffed by an impossibly sweet and wonderful person who you also happen to get to sleep next to. At any rate, I digress. I picked up this book at random and … well, after a couple of days I can’t say that I’m disappointed in the book itself but I do find myself rather disappointed with the reality therein presented.

It’s worth noting that I am by nature a cynical person and I get that the wealthy in this country are detached from the reality of the less fortunate. I don’t expect them to know how it is “growing up in the hood” but the author of this book seems more hopelessly clueless than one could reasonably imagine. Sure, he grew up in affluence but he seems almost ignorant that there are people in the world who are NOT affluent. His writing style is child-like and his themes, at least from the viewpoint of a lower-middle class person, are obvious and pedantic. There’s no news here.

What is refreshing and inspiring is his view of Starbucks as a corporation. I’m not a coffee-drinker so I’m about as detached from this company as they come. I bought some stock a while back… and then sold it, but that hardly counts as knowing their culture. Admittedly I’m a bit old-fashioned. I want a company (and a job at said company) to be a family. Not a family born out of a common enemy like a U.S. Marine’s drill Sargent, but a family born out of a common goal and a real sense of supportiveness. Gill’s portrayal of Starbucks is exactly that. I’m sure that he’s taken plenty of artistic license with the reality of working at Starbucks, but if even half of what he says is accurate then it’s a step up from the average corporate reality.

To sum up, the book is a unique viewpoint. It’s one that we never think about generally because we assume that nobody’s actually that naïve. Clearly though, there are some that ARE that naïve. One feels for the narrator in the same way one feels for Lenny in Of Mice and Men just before he gets shot in the head. Mercifully, our narrator survives but he does have the same dopey aspect that makes one feel sorry for him nonetheless.(less)

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Mar 23, 2013 David Glad rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biographies

Note: Thanks to my switching to audiobook on another page before posting the review when I first tried writing this review a while back, my lengthier review was lost to the great digital black hole.

The knee-jerk reaction for much of this book really is along the lines of "I can't stand this guy." and probably a whole other matter that I would let other folks digress on whether it made sense that author M Gates Gill could have an affair with a woman and not tell his wife until after the baby was...more Note: Thanks to my switching to audiobook on another page before posting the review when I first tried writing this review a while back, my lengthier review was lost to the great digital black hole.

The knee-jerk reaction for much of this book really is along the lines of "I can't stand this guy." and probably a whole other matter that I would let other folks digress on whether it made sense that author M Gates Gill could have an affair with a woman and not tell his wife until after the baby was delivered. (In hindsight, the woman claiming she was unable to have children could have been a relatively simple lie to fool him -- responsibility for actions are always the people involved in them -- into knocking her up, as she seemed to have the impression at some point in the relationship that he was loaded and perhaps continued to belief it even after he frankly told her he was broke shortly after she broke the "I am pregnant" news. Version MGG tells is his wife was OK with an affair, but NOT OK with it producing a child.)

So a lot of reminiscing about how interviewing at Starbucks was a breathtaking fall from the work he knew years back and tons of flashbacks of various people he encountered in life. (Hemingway, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, etc.) Him wondering what various family/friends would think if they saw him working there. (Even if some old college friend apparently probably shrugged it as if it was a case of Mr. Gill taking on such work as a means of keeping those twilight semi-retired years interesting. Meanwhile, his children did "surprise" him by visiting before he had a chance to get very "good" at the job, so they probably did not care as much either.. but again, perhaps everything else I have said suggests what a huge ego.) Him being very good at cleaning and afraid of the register or messing up with customers, but steadily stepping up to the challenge of making change and actually getting on well with customers from behind the register and eventually being quite entertaining with customers at store events.

Some folks may wonder whether MGG came out from this experience wiser or learned any lesson while suggesting the coworkers were great people and this book being another example of Starbucks being a great company. We certainly prefer to believe he did not take the job with the goal of becoming an aspiring writer on his rather unique experiences after his advertising background fizzled out, but certainly at times seems like a shallow society.. with a lot of it being made possible in part by advertisements. Maybe he thought he learned something and hopefully he did.(less)

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