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How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else
How Starbucks Saved My Life A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else
Author: Michael Gates Gill
The riches-to-rags true story of an advertising executive who had it all, then lost it all-and was finally redeemed by his new job, and his twenty-eight-year-old boss, at Starbucks.
Audio Books swap for two (2) credits.
ISBN-13: 9780143142409
ISBN-10: 0143142402
Publication Date: 9/20/2007
Pages: 1
Edition: Unabridged
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 14

3.9 stars, based on 14 ratings
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Book Type: Audio CD
Other Versions: Paperback, Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

donnatella avatar reviewed How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else on + 11 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
This is a quick, easy read about how Starbucks works and how a guy down on his luck found his calling when he started working for the company as a barista. However, Gill doesn't know when to stop name-dropping. I don't really care to see every famous person he's ever met mentioned in a single book, especially when they have little to do with the story. It's almost like Gill thought to himself, "Hey, Frank Sinatra is on the playlist at my Starbucks! I'll mention the time I met him!. And we serve scones! I'll talk about the time I had bad manners and bumped into the Queen of England!" I kept wanting to punch him.
reviewed How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else on + 11 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 6
I really enjoyed this book. Michael Gill is brutally honest about his reduced circumstances and the subsequent trials and tribulations he suffers as he searches for work and learns to cope in a job he is over qualified and unprepared for. His candid evaluations of himself as well as others was very interesting. The story has a happy ending even though we can't predict his future. You come away knowing that his attitude is what makes him successful.
reviewed How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else on + 2 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
What might have been an interesting magazine article becomes a repetitive, over-long walk through a fairly uninteresting year in this man's life. The audio CD especially becomes a "know-what's-gonna-happen" snoozefest long before it's over. Do yourself a favor and skip it.
daredevilgirl013 avatar reviewed How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else on + 746 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
A wonderful book that makes you wonder, would my life be better if I did a job I thought was under me? Would it make a difference. I amazed to find out the benefits that Starbucks gives (it's even better than my current job!!!) and how they really care about their "guests" and their "partners". It shows that people really do matter and care to Starbucks. Just a really great book that gives you insight to how Starbucks changes not only those that come in, but those that work there as well.
Heather-and-Raven avatar reviewed How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else on + 20 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I go to Starbucks 2-4 times a week, it's my happy place. Drinking Starbucks is like a hug to your insides. I would rather be dipped in a vat of hot latte than listen to this drivel. I didn't make it past disk 4. I don't care about this guy's "amazing" and "special" daughters. I don't care that he cheated on his wife, got the cheatee pregnant, and left her hanging too. He's boring, boring, boring. I thought it'd be an inspirational look on how working at Starbucks could turn someone's life around, but it's like way more about how he finds himself "so helpful" to the down-and-out African American female store manager - ordering her about on how to make PowerPoints and stuff - and less about Starbucks itself.
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reviewed How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else on + 32 more book reviews
I really enjoyed this quick read and recommended it to others looking for a job. It certainly makes you realize that some of your own perceptions might be a little 'off'. Don't expect this to be the best book you ever read - but it's definitely worth your time.
reviewed How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else on + 2 more book reviews
I thought the book was a good and interesting read. It showed that a person can start over at any age and it can be very humbling.
laurel23 avatar reviewed How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else on + 7 more book reviews
I really enjoyed this book. It is a light read, but I thought it was full of wisdom. It basically was a book about learning about different types of people and how to get along with them, how to take joy in the small experiences and victories in life, how to receive and show kindness. In it, a corporate exec type,someone born into money and society, loses his job, his health, his family and has to learn to live on a much lower income and learn new job skills, and rebuild his life.
reviewed How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else on + 14 more book reviews
Quick easy read with powerful life lessons.
reviewed How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else on + 4 more book reviews
This was a quick, easy read with a positive story that any reader, young or old, could learn from. The author has a casual, easy writing style that makes it a feel like a conversation with a friend. The author does often go off on what I felt to be tangents with little relevance to the story itself, but those did not take too much away from the message of the book. I walked away feeling happy for him and with a refreshed perspective on life's challenges and struggles.


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