Fired exec: 'Starbucks saved my life', Tom Hanks to star in movie

[Liberal_in_LA]

Starbucks must love this story! :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: Moral of story - turn your $10 hour job into a movie deal starring an academy award winning actor.

By Lola Ogunnaike
CNN American Morning

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Michael Gates Gill was a high-flying, six-figure-earning advertising executive years ago before he was abruptly fired. He had created huge campaigns for companies like Christian Dior and Ford and lived an even bigger life, with luxury automobiles, lavish vacations and fabulous clothes.

Michael Gates Gill's book about how working at Starbucks changed his life became a bestseller.

These days, however, he's traded his $3,000 Brooks Brothers suits for khakis and a green apron; the big bucks for a $10 an hour job as a barista at Starbucks. But Gill says he couldn't be happier.

"Losing my job turned out to be a gift in disguise."

------------------------------------

"I still have trouble with some of the drinks," he admits, "but I'm a good cleaner.... I can make a toilet shine like a Ferrari."

If life continues on an upswing for Gill, he may one day be able to purchase a Ferrari. His memoir, "How Starbucks Saved My Life," became a New York Times bestseller. The actor Tom Hanks has plans to produce and star in the film version. Gus Van Sant has agreed to direct.

"When I lost my job I thought my life was over," he says. "I didn't realize it was just the beginning." He smiles contentedly and declares, "I may have a part-time job, but I have a full-time life." HEAR THAT PART TIMERS?

He is also sharing everything he has learned, hitting the lecture tour with his "uplifting tale of personal transformation."

Home for Gill is now a modest apartment in the attic of an old house about five minutes away from the 25-room mansion where he was raised.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/02/05/starbucks.saved.my.life/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

[Taverner]

1. Well, at least its free advertising for a more or less "ethical" corporate citizen

Honestly, among corporate citizens, Starbucks is among the more ethical.

They pay employees better than most, they offer benefits even to PT employees, and they make a damn boring cup of coffee....

Seriously, I have no guilt patronizing them. They don't torture animals, give back to the community, and are pushing for Fair Trade to be the standard in coffee...

Their only downside, they are notorious Union busters.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. I hear ya... it's just silly the way this 63yr old downsizer is singing the praises of $10 buck/ hr

job cleaning toilets.

[Taverner]

7. Yep - but he knows a marketing op when he sees it

And this, if anything, is his ticket back into comfy couches...

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. Yeah, not that his book has sold let's see how long he continues at Starbucks.

[unapatriciated]

16. They have another downside...

I lived in Mammoth Lakes, Ca.(ski resort) for ten years. We had several family owned coffee houses with great baked goods, each one was unique. Starbucks came to town in the late 90's via the only Grocery Store Vons. (aka Safeway). Within two years they had five stores (opening them within a block to each existing coffee house), forcing the family owned out of business. Mammoth is a major ski resort but a very small town with only 4 traffic lights at that time. Yes they hate unions, during that time I worked for Vons, we were part of the grocery strike in 2003-04 the starbucks employees filled our jobs at our pay rate, (because they were a separate business within the store they were not required to join our union)) and new people where hired to run the starbucks. After the strike, they had to go back to working for $10 an hour and part time or lower wages as a new hire for Vons. Most of them quit. They realized too late what our strike was all about them not us....new hires and a two tier pay scale.

[Deja Q]

2. Uh, all they do is MAKE drinks. Then sell them.

Oh well. Maybe he can give them a keen advertising design. :eyes:

Sorry to be cynical, but I thought America's media was to send out messages of hope and accomplishment. Not "Fired from a proper paying job and now having to peddle drinks at a slave wage and be happy?"

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. and live in an ATTIC and be happy! For gawd's sake!

[liberalmuse]

6. My sister does well financially, but...

she took a parttime job at Starbuck's to make some extra money for her son, to send him to college. She loved it, got hooked on the coffee and they gave her so many free bags of coffee and tea she started giving them to me. Man, I miss that job, LOL.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. Nothing wrong with honest labor but PLEASE! The avg Starbuck

worker isn't going to be able to sell their memoirs. He lost his job but he's still
benefiting from being the formerly high flying son of a famous father.

[MUAD_DIB]

19. The Starbuck's Barista is about the equivalent of the 50s soda jerk.

Yeah, I'm cynical as well.


I don't look down at those who work for Starbucks, but it is not the place that I would want to 9-5.

It's endsville.

[liberalmuse]

5. I'm going to have to go out and buy this guy's book now.

What an interesting story!

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

8. Sounds more like his Memoir saved his life, along with savings and likely investments.

Sorry - not buying it.

[arcadian]

11. Another feature length commercial from Tom Hanks.

What was the other movie he did that had a Federal Express logo in every. single. god. damn. scene?

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. Oh noes! Hanks will be wearing a starbucks hat and apron, carrying starbucks cup, cleaning

starbucks toilet.

[Initech]

13. So how many is that? Three, four now?

First he did You've Got Mail (a 90 minute commercial for AOL), then he did Cast Away (a 2 hr commercial for FedEx) and now this. Tom Hanks, as the late, great Bill Hicks would say - you are now officially off the artistic radar. You're another corporate fuckin' shill, another whore in the capitalist gang bang.

[jane_pippin]

14. UGH. I remember when that book came out. It's filled with earthshattering insights such as:

"Hard work is hard" and "maybe there's more to life than being a top level executive...like friendship." :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

For those who don't know, Gill was a top ad exec, got fired, took a job at starbucks where he had a sassy black lady-boss who became his mentor and now he's sharing his experience in the book. It's so different than his old life! Amazing! Regular people are pretty cool too!

I suppose it's a nice enough story and I'm sure the guy means well. And it's good that he was able to open his mind to new experiences and new people, so I try not to fault him for that. However, as someone who has worked my whole life and spent almost all of it so far in low-wage jobs:
1. I hate the romanticizing of the low-wage job.
2. I am happy that he had the revelations but at the same time am not impressed that it took him losing his job and being forced to live like the rest of us to recognize common decency is a good thing. I mean really, good for you and welcome to the human race and all, but I feel no need to give you a medal for it either.


And of course Tom Hanks will make a movie out of it. Of course. Shlocky nonsense? Get Tom Hanks on the phone, this shit's going on film!



But that's just my humble opinion. As the kids say, YMMV.

[NashVegas]

22. Milan Kundera Wrote the Same Thing 25 Years Ago

When Tomas went from neurosurgeon to farm hand.

And I'll bet he said it better.

[jane_pippin]

29. Yes, I'm 100% sure he said it better.

If it were possible to be more than 100% sure of something, I'd be that.

It's not that I don't like the story arc. When this sort of thing is done well it can be really touching and beautiful. From what I read of this book (and I admit, I gave up pretty quickly), it was neither of those things. That, of course, means the movie will be a hit and for months and months I will be cursed with seeing it everywhere and hearing about how much everyone loved it and I will be mocked for disliking it. :D

[Liberal_in_LA]

30. I bet his 'sassy black boss lady' keeps making $12/hr while he moves back into a upper crust

lifestyle.

[jane_pippin]

31. And then there's that.

As far as I know he still works there so I wonder what it must be like for his fellow employees to work with him.

Full disclosure here: I work for a bookstore and when the book first came out he did a talk at one of our stores. I didn't meet him but all my co-workers who did said he seemed nice and sincere enough, so I guess that's one good thing. I'm probably being too hard on the guy--it is important for people to grow and change and as far as that goes good on him--but as I said before, it's hard for me to care about a once-uncouth executive who had to completely hit rock bottom financially to realize he should probably be a nicer person.

[ColbertWatcher]

15. Next up: "How Wal-Mart Made Me Settle For Less! Praise Jesus!" n/t

[unapatriciated]

17. .....

:rofl: :rofl:
Thanks for putting this in perspective.

[ColbertWatcher]

23. I can totally see more stories likke this from ...

... the GOP-controlled media.

How can anyone be happy about the direction art has been going under Rove and his GOP pals?

[Last Stand]

32. The glorification of poverty. It's SO cool. nt

[ColbertWatcher]

36. I wouldn't be so hard on the Christian deification of poverty.

Or, was that not what you meant?

[Liberal_in_LA]

28. lol. n/t

[readmoreoften]

18. Subtitled: it's so much fun "slumming" with the middle class.

Home for Gill is now a modest apartment in the attic of an old house about five minutes away from the 25-room mansion where he was raised.

[Jennicut]

20. I don't like seeing us as Americans settle for mediocre

service jobs but it sounded like this guy was a rich kid type who needed a good lesson on how to treat other people. But I have never had a Starbucks coffee. I prefer my D&D and heard Starbucks is too strong.

[tomreedtoon]

21. Does this guy still have a job at Starbucks?

Probably not, I'm guessing. Maybe he can write his next book about how much he learned about life by living in a cardboard box and eating out of dumpsters, like the rest of us.

But I can't understand a D&D player or Dungeon Master who thinks their coffee is "too strong." It is. But you guys are used to swigging Mountain Dew and eating Cheetos to stay awake during long gaming sessions, especially at places like GEN CON. Drinking the boiled caffeinated mud they sell at Starbucks should be just up your alley.

[Jennicut]

25. LOL! I meant Dunkin Donuts over Starbucks, not Dungeons and Dragons, sorry.

But playing Dungeons and Dragons, well my brother did when he was like 15. That was almost 20 years ago and there was nothing wrong with it, I played with him one time and got to be a sorcerer or something. But I like the taste of Dunkin and have been told that Starbucks is like drinking some damn strong tasting stuff.

[HughBeaumont]

24. "Dr. LowWage or: How I Learned to Accept My Place and Love Stagnation."

"Middle Class Prosperity Doesn't Live Here Anymore"
"Down the Corporate Staircase"
"Eternal Treadmill of the Savings-Free Mind-Numb"
"No Country for Old Progress"
"The Day the Wage Stood Still"
"For a Few Dollars Less"

:eyes: :eyes:

[Starry Messenger]

26. Those are awesome.

:rofl:

[mikeytherat]

38. "A Fistful of Coupons" "How to Suck in Business without Really Trying"

"All Quiet in the Walmart Parking Lot"

mikey_the_rat

[marmar]

27. Somebody needs to save Starbucks these days......

..... $4 over-roasted dirt water isn't so moda when the economy sucks.

[Bucky]

33. Wouldn't a guy be called a barristo instead of barrista? Or maybe barristron?

Barrist? Barrier? Barrionaire?

[KittyWampus]

34. One of my happiest jobs ever was working at a deli. Not much money

but it was fun along with the occasional free fish from the haul-seiners and some flirting.

[hatrack]

35. Feel-good swill - a.k.a. The Exception The Proves The Rule

Here's this one guy, and he's living proof of . . . what? That the American Dream is alive and well? That anyone can make it if they work hard? That this is the Land Where Dreams come true?

Uh, no. It's evidence that every once in a while, someone can craft an "uplifting tale of personal transformation" - or for that matter, an uplifting raft of unmitigated bullshit (The Secret) and make just pots and pots of money off of the proceedings.

I don't begrudge this guy the success he's found, but considering that (A) we're now in the 13th straight month of job loss; (B) you need net production of 160,000-odd jobs every single month just to stay even with workforce/population growth - that is, to maintain 0% job growth - and (C) Starbucks is closing hundreds of stores and laying off thousands of employees, I don't think a fairy tale like this is going to go over well or comfort much of anybody. And I haven't even mentioned debt, deficits, and zombie banks.

The time for this kind of corporate feel-good fellatio-fest has long since come and gone, along with the dime novel and Horatio Alger.

[ColbertWatcher]

37. I want to see the Wal-Mart version of this one.

Where some poor working "Joe" (LOL) has to sleep inside the store overnight, then gets sick with pneumonia after being chased out into the snow so the corporation doesn't look bad when some TV crew comes looking for a story for sweeps week. Who then cannot afford proper medical care and goes into a coma because no one notices that he's been on the floor of the emergency room for more than 18 hours. He falls in love with one of the nurses there, but can't get married because they're both guys and then he dies in custody while waiting for his deportation hearing back to Haiti, where he would have died of starvation.

But at least he died in America with some food in his stomach.

[PVnRT]

39. For fuck's sake

It's a hell of a lot easier to go from six figures to minimum wage (where the FUCK do Starbucks employees make ten an hour? My wife sure as hell didn't) than it is to go from 40 grand a year to minimum wage. This guy is an ass, and promoting his idiotic book is doing nothing more than perpetuating the American myth that, by golly, all you need is gumption and a work ethic and success will come find you.