Inspiring People: Michael Gates Gill Of Starbucks

Another one of my favorite inspiring people is Micheal Gates Gill. He once made about $160,000 a year as an advertising executive and who now he earns around $10.50 an hour making coffee at Starbucks.

This Yale-educated son of the famed New Yorker writer Brendan Gill, don khakis and a green apron working as a barista at Starbucks. Interestingly, Gill says he couldn’t be happier.

"inspiring people"

According to this author of “How Starbucks Saved My Life”, one fine day he was asked to go from his job at J. Walter Thompson because Michael Gates Gill was making too much money and someone younger would work for less. After that fateful day, Gill’s life took a big tumble.

In a few short years, Gill closed the consulting business he started after he was laid off from J Walter Thompson, got divorced (getting someone pregnant with a child) and was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

It was a trip to Starbucks which changed his life. One morning he walked into a Manhattan Starbucks for his daily dose of caffeine and a 28 year old Starbucks manager named Crystal Thompson approached him and asked if he would like to apply for a job. The rest is an inspiring story which has turned into a Hollywood movie by Tom Hanks. Incidentally, Tom Hanks is playing Michael Gates Gill.

Currently 65 year-old Michael Gates Gill works at Starbucks in Bronxville, New York. Get the book “How Starbucks Saved My Life”. It is written in simple English and it is really inspiring.