Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Greg Book Review - How Starbucks Saved My Life / Michael Gates Gill


Loved this book, perhaps the best book I have read in a long time. This is a story of a man who had everything in life - a great family, a privilege upbringing, a fantastic education, and a job that paid him in six-figures each year. Through a series of circumstances and bad choices (an affair at an older age that resulted in the birth of a child out of wedlock) he lost everything and ended up in his neighborhood Starbucks shop. A manager there offered him a job and he took it, thinking that the service industry was not going to be the right place for him but he needed to pay the rent and eat.

It turned out to be life-changing.

He started to interact with people that he never would have given a second glance to in his previous elite life. He started to serve people instead of being served. He saw people that were different but were the same.

And he loved it.

It made me think about what I do for a living and how I interact with people. It is no secret that I don't love what I do (data warehouse manager) but I do it for my family and because that is where the Lord needs me. I know that in time I will be in a position that I enjoy and I am where I am supposed to be. In the meantime . . . doing what is asked. But that doesn't mean I can't show love and respect, that I can't serve, that I can't see the good in all that I interact with at work.

Too bad I don't drink coffee or I would frequent Starbucks because of this book.

Two thumbs up, highly recommended.

1 comment:

  1. P.S. Sweet brother, they don't just serve coffee. They serve wonderful things like shaken lemonades that you can get in the flavors of green tea, passion tea, black tea or regular lemonade. oh, and they have a great mint hot chocolate in the winter. As your black sheep sister, I {heart} Starbucks for something other than coffee, even though that can have it's perks too. Shhh... don't tell mom.

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