How Starbucks Saved My Life – A review

I mentioned last week that I finished the book How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else. What a delightful read!

In a nutshell, the author, Michael Gates Gill, writes about his experiences in the high pressure world of advertising as an executive, and what happened to him when he was unexpectedly fired. You probably know some of Mike’s work – he did the “Looking for a Few Good Men” campaign for the Marines back in the 70s. His career required him to move all over the country and miss a lot of time with his family including one Christmas Eve when FORD decided to shoot a commercial for a New Years Day sale. Mike was 110% a company man. Yet despite his seniority and experience, or maybe because of it, the company sent another senior executive, one of Mike’s former subordinates whom he had mentored for years, to let him go at a brief breakfast meeting.

That’s only the first chapter or so in the book. The rest focuses on the surprise job offer from Starbucks when Mike was visiting one day just to have a cup of coffee, and how his life changed as he found himself doing things he had never done before, like cleaning the bathroom, and unexpectedly finding that he enjoyed his new job!

I discovered this book when I saw a Q&A in Parade Magazine with some “experts” on dealing with the economy. Mr. Gill was one of the panelists. In these unsure times with so many folks losing jobs or falling on difficult times, this was an excellent chance to find out what it takes to start all over again. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to feel a little inspiration and encouragement!

Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a>

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