This is the story of Michael Gates Gill, author of the book "How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else". Gill came from a wealthy family, educated at an ivy league school, and went to work at J. Walter Thompson, one of the largest advertising firm at the time. He was an executive who climbed the corporate ladder for about a quarter of a century (25 years) and had the title of "Creative Director" when one day in 1997 he was down-sized -- in other words, he got fired. Then his marriage fell apart, and he later got diagnosed with a brain tumor as well. (Fortunately, the brain tumor was not life-threatening.)

It was at this lowest point in his life in this "riches-to-rags" story that by a chance incidence he stumbled upon a Starbucks job fair and eventually got hired. So Gill down-sized his life of a six-figure salary executive to a Starbucks barista. Gill lives in a renovated-attic apartment on the third story of a house; whereas in his former life he lived in 25-room mansion. He works at Starbucks part-time for the early shift, but gets a full health benefit.

Barista is a fairly new term that some spell-checkers are not recognizing it. It means someone who makes and serves coffee-based drinks. Starbucks calls their workers at their stores "baristas" or "partners". But basically what Gill does at Starbucks is to clean the bathrooms, sweep the floors, handle the cash register, and make coffee.

The moral of the story is that he loves this. He loves working at Starbucks and be able to get off work at 1pm and have a whole day ahead of him. He is happier now than he has ever been. And it is a big relief to be without the coporate ladder, without the achievement, without the status, without the money, and without all that stuff.

In this 2009 video linked here, an CNN reporter asked him, "if someone called you today and says we want you to be the CEO of this advertising agency and we're going to pay you half a million dollars a year and you're making ten dollars at Starbucks, you mean to tell me that you would stay at Starbucks making ten dollar an hour?" Gill answers, "Yes, because I know the price. The price is that you have to give up your life -- twelve hour days, twenty hours days. The little details is that you never stop thinking about that job."

In the video, you also hear Starbucks customers commenting on Gill's positive attitude at the coffee shop where Gill works.

As reported in the 2007 CBS news report at the Bronxville Starbucks where Gill worked at the time, Starbucks manager Nehemiah Luckett says that "Gill's forte is customer service". The report also says that Gill is so much happier in the "cozy little attic apartment" than he ever was in the 25-room house.

As validation of Gill's new-found world-view on life, the video linked here where Gill is giving a talk at a Tattered Cover Bookstore in Colorado in 2007, Gill mentions that another Starbucks barista named Jennifer is in the audience who also shares the same view that she is happier now than she had ever been. Jennifer is a former teacher. So apparently, working at Starbucks is also better than teaching -- at least for Jennifer. Unlike Gill, Jennifer is a lot younger. As quoted by Gill in the video, Jennifer "discovered a lot quicker in life how much funner life can be when you get out of the escalator thing", where "escalator thing" refers to climbing the corporate latter.

If you don't have time to read the book, watch the video in the above link. The video is about half an hour long and gives a detailed enough view of Gill's story. Plus he speaks very well with injection of a good dose of humor in it -- afterall he had been an advertising executive.

At the end of the talk, an audience member asked whether Gill would continue to work at Starbucks now that he is a famous author. Gill answered "absolutely".

Also listen to this 2007 NPR's "Talk of the Nation" interview of Mike Gill. Within the radio program, you will also hear other listeners call into the show and talk about similar situations where quitting or be fired had changed their life.

Gill's story is so compelling that Hollywood called him and bought the rights to make a movie of the title "How Starbucks Saved My Life".  And Tom Hanks is slated to play Gill.

The movie is mentioned in HollywoodReporter.com and is listed in theMovieInsider.com.

As part of Authors at Google series, here we find Gill speaking to Google employees at the Google campus ...

In the video, Gill says, "I'm happier than I've ever been. And part of that was having your life back. And part of that was finding some useful thing I could do. And part of that was creating enjoyment for others. But I think, another big part of it was the big super-structure of achievement and status and big houses. Whew. What a relief... Such a relief of not having the physical stuff and that mental stuff.... I thought I was happy with my previous life of status, title, and expense accounts, and traveling, and all that stuff. I thought I was happy. But it is nothing like the happiness I feel now without it."

Basically he was saying that he is happier now working at Starbucks than when he was making the big money as an executive.

This goes to show that you should not think of working at Starbucks as a low-paying job to be looked down upon. The back cover of Gill's book explains it the best by saying that "the simple idea that down-to-earth, humbling labor can help you reorient your values and priorities and give you a new life. It will speak to anyone in need of a radical surgery on their worldview"

I think the question of whether you want to be a high-paying executive versus working as a barista is a good question to ask oneself to discover our priorities and values in life.   To some extent, the answer depends on what stage of life you are in.  A young recent college graduate might be more ambitious and choose the executive route in order to make a successful life of oneself.   Whereas, an older more life-experienced person might understand that there is more to life than money.  I'm sure the answer is a personal one where the correct answer is different for each person.  As for Michael Gates Gill, he certainly knows his answer -- and that is to be a barista at Starbucks.

For another motivational story, read the insights of a brain scientist after her stroke.

Also read about interesting tidbits about Starbucks.