Coffee Can be Good for You

Okay. So you've gone to all the right pre-schools and prep-schools. You've attended the most prestigious private schools to prepare you for following your parents and your grandparents footsteps into Yale. You graduate and you land a high-paying job. Suddenly the market takes a downturn and you begin looking for an alternative. That's the situation that faced Michael Gates Gill, who then decided to look into Starbucks as that very same alternative. Only thing was he wasn't interested in running the company. Just the milk steamer. Michael Gill went from an executive making hundreds of millions of dollars per year to taking on a job that earns him a little more than $10.50 per hour. Not bad but also not what one would expect from an executive who has Yale-credentials. I mean he can hobnob with the President for goodness sake but he probably prefers to hobnob with his regular customers.

And that's precisely what Gill claims led him to take on the job. He found the experience so enlightening that he even wrote a book on it. Now for most baristas (as the coffee 'chefs' are called in Starbucks) I think writing a book on the side is something of a dream that many rarely see fulfilled. Still, how many people are really interested in reading about a kid who went to a regular high school and then decided to put his life on the right track by becoming a coffee barista at his local Starbucks? Not many. And I don't think it's the kind of story that would draw on directors like Gus Van Sant or actors like Tom Hanks looking to film the story of Gill's book in movie form. So then what is it that seems to be drawing in such fascination with the story? What about it is so unusual that publishers felt it was a story worth printing versus the hundreds of others put together by Starbucks employees?

I think the most significant factor is the fact that the person writing the story is a person of 'privilege' who really shouldn't have to take the job because of his situation. According to Gill, he was released from his position as an advertising executive for what he refers to as a younger model. That's not to say suddenly Kate Moss was brought in, but someone younger and full of 'new ideas'. Gill then decided to start his own business which didn't do as well and was subsequently diagnosed with a brain tumor. Desperate to secure a job that would at least provide income and health coverage, Gill interviewed with a nearby Starbucks and was hired on. Soon he found he enjoyed making coffee more than making ads. Though there will likely be a spate of jobs being fired his way considering he is making waves with his forthcoming book, it's not likely that Gill will leave Starbucks for 'greener' pastures in the executive world.

I think this is the perfect case of the 'grass being greener on the other side'. For many people who haven't gone to Harvard or who may never even go to college, working at places like Starbucks or McDonalds or Target are opportunities to excel and get into management roles through hard work and dedication. These people also have the potential to lead multi-million dollar corporations but because they haven't had the opportunities as some of the people in the upper strata of society, they don't get the same chances. They look on those from 'privileged' families with some degree of envy but as Michael Gill shows, perhaps it is they who are to be envied. Working in advertising, Gill was looking for interaction with people and the cameraderie that comes from working in that type of environment. And given the number of Starbucks I have been into, I can tell you that this is certainly the type of atmosphere it promotes.

Gill, whose father was a writer for the New Yorker, claims that though his father was a high achiever he probably wouldn't understand why his son is happy doing something that pays a less than half of what he was making in advertising. I think it speaks well of Gill that he is sticking with what makes him happy because in the end, that is what helps define one's career. I have worked in a variety of jobs over time and one thing I can say is that unless you work in an environment in which you feel happy and productive, you will never be happy. Do the things you love and work in a place that will foster it. Pay is an important part of the equation but as Michael Gill has shown, it's not how much you get paid, but what you do with the opportunities that are presented to you. Perhaps he got a leg up in getting his book published considering he comes from a 'privileged' background but at least he's continuing to do what makes him happy.