Starbucks saved his life

Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Michael Gates Gill didn’t learn to savor life until he began serving coffee to others.

He shared his riches-to-rags story in the 2007 book, “How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else.”

The author of the bestseller — soon to be a Tom Hanks movie — spoke Monday at The Economic Club of Grand Rapids to a crowd of about 600 at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel.

The club tapped the New Yorker for its December luncheon, which is traditionally reserved for an inspirational story. The event also included a standing ovation for executive director Lorna Schultz, celebrating her 20th anniversary with the organization.

Gill says he appreciates hard workers such as Schultz after landing an hourly job as a bartista at age 63.

By the time he wandered into the Starbucks that was hiring, his life had hit rock bottom after he was downsized from a six-figure job, divorced and diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Despite a Yale University degree and a 26-year career as an advertising executive, Gill had few practical skills. Everything had been given to him from his education to his career, he said. He even needed help filling out his Starbucks application.

At Starbucks, Gill said he was taken under the wing by his new boss Crystal and later Kester, his training coach.

He credits some of his biggest lessons to Crystal’s tutelage. Crystal grew up in the projects and worked hard for everything she earned.

“She treated me with loving kindness that I had never thought to offer anyone I worked with in my 26 years,” he said.

Crystal could overlook his less-than-stellar skill in making lattes, but she called him in her office when she saw him refusing to let a homeless use the restroom he had just cleaned.

“The last thing that gentleman needed was to be disrespected by you,” she told him. “This is the one place you shouldn’t decide who to respect or not.”

It took a while for his “old habits of arrogance” to die, but Gill says he is happy with transformation. He didn’t realize how much he changed until Kester complimented him on the quality of his work cleaning restrooms and closing the store, and Gill felt pride for the first time.

“I realized for many years I didn’t have a sense that I had value — that I contributed to something,” Gill said.

The book is based on the journal he kept at his daughter’s suggestion.

From Mlive.com - read full story

Related Story - Life Changes, with a latte to go (NY Times)

UPS Pilot is Award Winning Independent Filmmaker

When he’s not wearing brown and flying back and forth across the country, Dewayne Rudd is filming documentaries. Rudd, a pilot for the United Parcel Service (UPS), has made several documentaries on subjects ranging from veterans suffering from Alzheimer’s disease to a young boy’s exploration of NASA to an American singing group’s tour of China.

“My passion is to show the great humanitarian projects people are doing and to bring inspiration to others,” said Rudd. “There are thousands who make part of their life mission helping others. We want to shine a light on their great work.”

Rudd’s work has been chosen to be included in several film festivals, both in the United States and abroad. His film “Friends in Discovery” was recently chosen by the International Film Festival in Egypt for 2009.

“Friends in Discovery” is the story of 10 year-old Conner and his father as they explore the history of the space program. The film gives audiences Connor’s perspective and includes exciting archival footage of significant successes in NASA’s exploration of space.

“I wanted to provide a film that would ignite the scientific curiosity of our children and be an inspirational story for all ages,” says Rudd.

Another of Dewayne Rudd’s films “Into the Way of Peace,” follows the Americana Music Group during their two week tour of China. Americana performs a variety of music, from the classics to contemporary pop, for thousands of Chinese students. The film also includes traditional Chinese music from 1,300 years ago performed by Chinese scholar-musicians. “Into the Way of Peace” proves there is one world, shared; one race, human; and one way, peace.

More personal, Rudd chronicled the story of WWII and Korean War veterans in his “They Are Still There,” a documentary about those veterans now struggling with Alzheimer’s and dementia. The Korean War veteran was Rudd’s own father.

“‘They Are Still There’ declares the spirit of loved ones with dementia still survives, and they still deserve our love,” says Rudd.

Dewayne Rudd is president of the nonprofit production organization Cross & Flag Productions. www.crossandflagproductions.com