Radio Lady: My heart may be stolen by another man... Michael Gates Gill

[Radio_Lady]

Michael Gill is the author of a new book "How Starbucks Saved My Life." I had the distinct privilege of interviewing him for almost an hour. You can hear the interview TODAY (Monday, September 24 at 1 PM Pacific/4 PM Eastern Please adjust for other time zones.) Go to my journal page: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Radio_Lady
Look in the right hand column for more information on how to hear my interview via the internet.

This is a real riches to rags to riches story, with a lot of information about Starbucks. (Buy the way, he's been given leave to publicize the story, and Starbucks management did not require him to submit his draft prior to publication Michael is the oldest son of Brendan Gill, a very popular and busy author who wrote for the New Yorker magazine. Mike and his four siblings lived a life of wealthy privilege until the tables turned in the most difficult way. He lost his job, his marriage shattered, and to add insult to injury, Michael was diagnosed with a non-cancerous but still scary brain tumor.

One day, while Mike was sitting in a Starbucks restaurant, an African-American woman named Crystal must have sensed his pain, and offered him a job as a barista. That's a fancy name for Starbucks counter person. Michael took the job largely because he needed the medical insurance and he needed the work.

Well, the story gets better here. Michael starts writing a book on his experiences of being downsized -- and turns that into a liberal appreciation of how other classes of people struggle to get and keep work, especially those employed at Starbucks. That's in-between cleaning latrines, which he apparently does not mind.

So what has happened since has been almost a miracle. Michael lives comfortably but not lavishly in Bronxville, which is a not the hoity-toity neighborhood. He has a home, but no significant other, not even a dog. Now he has a bouncing baby book to take him to many cities to speak at book stores.

Here's the kicker: The story has been optioned for a movie. Tom Hanks is the potential star to play Michael in the movie. Six figures is the rumor. The story is listed on the IMDB in pre-production.

Please get a copy of this eye-opening new book for the honest description of a ride on the roller coaster of life. It's exceptional, and if I weren't married, well... he is just a very warm human being who has been chewed up by life, but lives to tell about. I think his fortune has definitely changed and we'll be hearing about him author again soon.

Let's hope he doesn't get too rich to quite his Starbucks job and go back to playing golf at the country club.

Naw, I think he's hitched his amazing wagon to the stars! Hope book sales keep up with the expectations.

[Callalily]

1. Thanks for the tip

about this book. I'll have to check it out.

[Radio_Lady]

2. Yes, please do. It's a great read if you're looking for that "Little Engine That Could" effect!

Do you know that classic children's story?

The Little Engine didn't know if he could make it up a hill. But he used these words to help him.

I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN (When spoken, these words sound like a chugging locomotive.)

He makes it up the hill, and then comes down the other side with:

I THOUGHT I COULD, I THOUGHT I COULD, I THOUGHT I COULD.

[Radio_Lady]

3. Backstory on How Starbucks Saved My Life and Michael Gates Gill.

From: http://www.thelavinagency.com/usa/michaelgatesgill.html

He-e-e-r-e-z-z Michael!! He got FIRED UP and grabbed the gold ring on the carousel of life!



At age 63, Michael Gates Gill began his new job—behind the counter of a Starbucks. A former top-ranking ad executive who loses his job and his family, Gill finds self-acceptance and a renewed sense of purpose in the most surprising place. His incredible story is told in How Starbucks Saved My Life, a new memoir and forthcoming film, produced by and starring Tom Hanks.

A self-described old, opinionated white guy, Michael Gates Gill was out of work and desperate when he met a young Starbucks manager. Crystal was an opinionated African-American woman who had been born into poverty. She offered him a much-needed job—and hope for the future. Gill’s friendship with Crystal and his experiences at Starbucks changed his life, showing him how people can reach across previous habits of prejudice and distrust to find happiness and personal satisfaction. During his year working with Crystal, Gill’s old world slowly fell away, for the better.

Gill’s book, How Starbucks Saved My Life, is the personal yet universal story of old meeting young, white meeting black, and once-rich meeting once-poor. It has generated an unprecedented amount of hype in both the publishing and film worlds. And it’s not hard to see why: besides the validating personal triumph of Gill’s success, it deals, in an honest way, with nearly every hot button topic in our country today: classism, racism, ageism, corporate accountability, baby boomer concerns, and medical insurance woes—problems that run deep in our culture, but which are rarely discussed openly.

All these timely issues, plus a rare behind-the-scenes look at the cultural and business phenomenon of Starbucks, are discussed beautifully and humorously by Gill, who has managed to do that rarest of things—he has captured, for a large segment of older Americans, the mood of our uncertain times by telling us his own, unique story. Michael Gates Gill counts himself lucky: he learned what really matters, late in life, from his new boss and colleagues, people he may never have met in his old life. He still works at Starbucks, by the way, and he intends to do so for the foreseeable future.

******

[Radio_Lady]

4. Anyone order this book or want to read it?