Another Good Book

This must be the season for good inspirational books. Yesterday I read How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill. This is an inspiring tale of a man who literally had everything and loss it. Michael Gill had a big house in the suburbs, a loving family and an important job at the J. Walter Thompson advertising firm. At sixty years of age he had lost it all and soon his marriage ended. He was also diagnosed with a slow growing brain tumor at the same time. He had no money, no medical insurance and no job prospects.

One day Gill sat in a Manhattan Starbucks mulling over his misfortune when a twenty-eight year old Starbucks manager offered him a job. With no real prospects Gill took the job and transformed himself from a coffee drinking customer in a Brooks Brothers suit to serving coffee is a green uniform. Working in the city with a much younger, less educated team of African Americans, Michael became a humbler, nicer more contented person. This is a story of personal growth and finding happiness. It is also a great primer in the corporate culture of Starbucks and the tremendous impact it has had on American life. Give it a read!