How Starbucks Saved My Life

A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else

By: Michael Gates Gill

Narrated by: Dylan Baker

Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

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 his 20-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 latte, 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 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.

©2007 Michael Gates Gill (P)2007 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

Critic reviews

"A great lesson in finding your highest self in the unlikeliest of places, proof positive that there is no way to happiness: rather, happiness is the way." (Wayne Dyer)

"I like my Starbucks, but I loved this book. It hit me emotionally and intellectually, right in the gut. The message, what the world needs to embrace most, made my cup runneth over!" (Dr. Denis Waitley)

Reminds of you the little things in life

Really enjoyed this hooked. As person who’s always strives to move my way and put things aside. It reminds you to slow down and enjoy what you have to make time for the people you care

Poetic and inspiring

This was a poetic and inspiring story; a reminder that life isn’t about what you have, but what you make of it. Life isn’t about knowing famous people and being rich, it’s knowing the people around you well and enjoying the richness that surrounds us all.
This will be a book I listen to over and over again.

LOVE

This true story humbles me. It feels so authentic and it makes me cry while listening to it. Thank you very much for sharing this story Mike! ❤️❤️❤️

Memorable story

This book has taught me how a support system such as friends and family can benefit an individual on hard times.

Through this book, I have experienced being a barista in new york without ever being there. This book is a good slice of life read and it will leave you broken hearted in a good way.

Story is not believable

First the audio and then the story.

I too found the narrator's presentation tedious and uncomfortable; I expected him to bust into tears at any moment. The music added at the end of some sections was annoying and often too loud. Apparently they were trying to add dramatic effect to an already sentimental reading.

The book has two themes: the author’s fall from a privileged past and his many revelations after joining the real world of the average working guy.

I can take the stories about his past at face value: privileged kid uses connections to get good job at a prestigious advertising agency, which he loses after getting too old. We have all heard that story before.

But his experience as an old white guy working with mostly young black people is just too stereotypical to be believed. His mind is constantly challenged by the realities of inner city life; their life is indeed so much different then his. Oh really?

And of course, everything he observes about his African-American co-workers is framed through the typical orthodoxy: if it’s bad it’s a result of White racism and if it’s good it’s a result of pure self-determination. Nope – can’t buy it.

And maybe the most unbelievable part of this book is how the author gushes over the praise he receives for cleaning up the toilet. Seems no one can scrub down the restroom like he does! You gotta be kidding.

So this book is just not credible. Turns out the author quickly got a movie deal with Tom Hanks. That is not a surprise to me as this book is just the type of sappy story line Hanks and Oprah love.

slant

This explains the advertising industry. With all condolences to the author for having such a frightening turn of events, I must say that the book was written like most ads. Simplistic and without much depth. It was very Polyannna, just like all ads. Buy this, are in this case-read this, and everything will be OK. I also thought the repetitive celebrity name dropping was a bit much. It would have been more insightful if the author had put more of his life outside of Starbucks into the book. As written I can't help but feel like Starbucks was the publisher, editor, agent and typist for the author. If you're looking for a good mid-life crisis book, keep looking.

Hallmark Story Time

What would have made How Starbucks Saved My Life better?

The two biggest issues here are lack of originality to the story and the narrators style. The philosophy and breakthroughs he experienced are just so obvious and on-the-nose, along with this weird subtle undercurrent of probably inadvertent racism. "They're successful and they're black! Black people's lives are so hard! What a ass I was for thinking my life was hard!" Man did I start to cringe.

Couple with that is Dylan' Baker's style of performance which is cheesy and simplistic. It sounds as though he's reading a picture book to a group of third graders. The style emphasizes the sugary prose and makes the whole thing nauseating. In order to make this material work (if it's possible) I think it would have required a grounded realistic reading.

Would you ever listen to anything by Michael Gates Gill again?

No.

Would you be willing to try another one of Dylan Baker’s performances?

I think his style would be fine given the right material. Perhaps something comedic or more cynical. David Sedaris maybe. Not this dreck.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No.

Not a fan

The story sounded like one big infomercial for Starbucks! It almost sounded like he went under cover as a starbucks' barista so he could write this book. I wonder if Mr. Gill still works for Starbucks or has he made enough money off the book to return to the life of previlage?

Annoying

The author writes/speaks as if he were addressing a child. It gets pretty annoying after a while. I also get the feeling that he's not being completely honest about what he was like and whether he really changed by the end. He sounds more like a bad and condescending salesman.

sap-tastic

This book is a complete waste of time. Throughout his narrative the author marvels at the idea that the poor black people working at Starbucks are actually human! His gooey astonishment is Hallmark Hall of Fame nauseating.
I have no idea what prompted me to purchase this book. I kept listening because I was hoping something terrible would happen, but Mr. Gill just tows the Starbucks party line unquestioningly all the way to the very end.
I wish I could have those hours back.