How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill

Author:Michael Gates Gill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2007-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

6

The Million-Dollar Punch

“Try a little tenderness…”

—lyric by Otis Redding, played during a closing at Starbucks

SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER

More than a month passed, and I began to get into a more confident state about Starbucks. Handling the opening of the store with Crystal had been a big breakthrough for me, and I was getting more used to calling out drinks and making conversation at the same time—although I still made a lot of mistakes. Then one day, when she was making up the schedule for next week, Crystal told me: “It’s time you closed, Mike.”

She could see by my expression that I was worried. I had still not lost the habit of fearing any new challenge.

“Don’t worry,” Crystal continued. “You’ll be closing with Kester. He’s the best in the business.”

Fall seemed to have come earlier than ever this year, the days growing shorter. I shivered a little as I waited for my train. Partly from the cold, but also from the fact I was going to check on my tumor. I was not due into work until 8:30 that evening, so I had decided to use the day to go in to have another MRI. Dr. Lalwani’s assistant had called several times to make sure I would schedule an appointment. She had become more and more insistent. It had been more than six months since I had seen him and heard the shocking news that there was a “small growth” at the bottom of my brain.

I had told my children about the tumor—emphasizing that it was not terminal and nothing had to be done right away. Still, I knew they were concerned.

I had not told Crystal or my other Partners about my tumor. I didn’t want them to pity me. My growing confidence and enjoyment of working with them was based in part on the fact that my Partners gave me no quarter and did not make any special allowances for me—despite the fact that I was so much older. I had, I realized now, been deferred to all my adult life, and did I not want any more of that special status. Once, at JWT, they had done an interview with everyone who worked for me. I was surprised when people said they were afraid of me. I thought of myself as a “benevolent dictator.” Obviously my employees didn’t find me so benevolent as a boss.

Now, my Partners didn’t care about my background or my age or my education or my ability to create “successful selling ideas.” During a shift at Starbucks there was such pressure that it was a kind of immediate democracy—no time for anything but equality of opportunity to get the job done, done right, and done quickly. You had to grab that Tall Coffee With Room with speed, and cooperate with your Partners, or the whole experience wouldn’t work for everyone. I loved that feeling of being just one more part of a well-functioning team—no special treatment for me.

I had also felt that if I told my Partners

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