News, Fired exec: 'Starbucks saved my life' (health insurance, 2009, owning)

[John1960]

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Michael Gates Gill was a high-flying, six-figure-earning advertising executive years ago before he was abruptly fired. He had created huge campaigns for companies like Christian Dior and Ford and lived an even bigger life, with luxury automobiles, lavish vacations and fabulous clothes.

Fired exec: 'Starbucks saved my life' - CNN.com

[Huckleberry3911948]

Originally Posted by John1960

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Michael Gates Gill was a high-flying, six-figure-earning advertising executive years ago before he was abruptly fired. He had created huge campaigns for companies like Christian Dior and Ford and lived an even bigger life, with luxury automobiles, lavish vacations and fabulous clothes.

Fired exec: 'Starbucks saved my life' - CNN.com

this is a beautiful story written about a true american.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

this is a beautiful story written about a true american.

...who found happiness in making toilets shine at a place catering to the wealthy. Yep, that's a true Horatio Alger lift yerself up by the bootstraps story.

At least if went to being a Zen monk tending a garden and using a begging bowl there would be some greater sense of purpose.

I understand the "drop out of the rat race mentality." I've done that as much as possible myself. To me, this is about as sad as it gets. I'll guarantee the guy is there because Starbucks supplies health insurance and he is scared sh^H^Hwitless that he might have to go without any insurance and still have to survive. I'll bet he is covering his bases so well that the folks who read his book and have the power to hire or fire think he LOVES swabbing toilets. Sometimes that is what folks have to do.

I've swabbed my quota of toilets, cleaned up my quota of customer puke, done all of the dirty jobs and taken them in stride. The day I make a public point that I'm happy making the bowl shine is the day I hope someone takes a gun and shoots me.

[maf763]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

...who found happiness in making toilets shine at a place catering to the wealthy.

And parlayed that into a book and movie deal. Not so terrible.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by maf763

And parlayed that into a book and movie deal. Not so terrible.

At what cost? Yeah, he gets bucks for saying he loves to scrub toilets, and Starbucks and Hollywood lap up stuff like that, but what does it say to others?
What he has done is fought his way back into the same ol' pigpen that he escaped by touting the freedom of the proletariat.

[maf763]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

At what cost? Yeah, he gets bucks for saying he loves to scrub toilets, and Starbucks and Hollywood lap up stuff like that, but what does it say to others?
What he has done is fought his way back into the same ol' pigpen that he escaped by touting the freedom of the proletariat.

You're probably right - making big bucks on a book and movie deal is not worth losing the esteem of harry chickpea on City-Data. He's a loser.

[wanneroo]

I was living in Vail, CO during the dot com boom and bust and there was a door man at one of the hotels I used to visit for work and occasionally I'd chat to him. Apparently he had worked for a dot com, had a great job, on paper was worth millions and then everything collapsed. He lost everything. Said he felt like killing himself, but got it together and came out to Vail and got a job as a door man. It has to be hard to have a well paid job and be worth millions and then poof all gone overnight.

It certainly gives me thought to how I structure my life.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by maf763

You're probably right - making big bucks on a book and movie deal is not worth losing the esteem of harry chickpea on City-Data. He's a loser.

I don't take that as a personal attack. My point is that he used his marketing skills to turn scrubbing toilets into a "desirable" occupation and has written an inspirational book so that others can follow his lead. It isn't my esteem of him that is the issue. The issue is his own self-esteem and delusional system of priorities that play into the hands of those who need toilet scrubbers.

I have a friend who had too much of the high pressure life and retired early and has been teaching adult education courses. Cool. I have another friend who, in his late 20s, decided to spend a couple years in a Zen monastery. Awesome. I've re-invented my own job skillset over the years from healthcare aide to professional photography to projectionist to management to owning a theatre to upper management to programming to businessowner in janitorial supplies and then in computers and I'm reworking it yet again into the arts and woodskills. Somehow, after having had to train and hire cleaning services and study which cleaning products are cost effective and useful for hundreds of bathrooms, that magic toilet swab he has just doesn't seem like a valid step to a larger world view. I wouldn't suggest ANYONE follow the course of my own life, changing professions is hell on income, and I've made more mistakes than most, but I have had a variety of work experiences at all levels. As part of that experience, I've learned to sniff out the folks that have more puffery than the Pillsbury Doughboy.

[maf763]

Uh, OK.

[jaindow]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

The day I make a public point that I'm happy making the bowl shine is the day I hope someone takes a gun and shoots me.

Ahhhhh, that made me laugh out loud - I love it! Thanks for that!