Michael Gill's lemons-to-lemonade memoir chronicled his transformative years working at Starbucks after losing his high-powered job, his marriage, and his health (he developed a brain tumor). In response to overwhelming requests from readers who wanted to know how they, too, could weather downturns, he has distilled his lessons into fifteen meaningful lessons, including:

·Leap...With Faith: Sometimes it pays to leap without looking and say yes without thinking (Gill accepted the Starbucks job immediately, on a whim).

·Let Yourself...Be Helped: Pride is even more paralyzing than fear.

·Look...with Respect at Every Individual You See: Gill was raised to avoid eye contact with those who were different, cloistered in a privileged world. Now he realizes the potential in all who cross his daily path.

·Lose...Your Watch (and Cell Phone and PDA!): Our obsession with productivity produces madness, not gladness.

Offering living proof that extraordinary happiness is found in ordinary moments, How to Save Your Own Life provides empowering words and hope for anyone facing a reversal of fortune. True fortune, Gill discovered, lies not in fate but in discovering the innate capacity we all possess to rescue ourselves.

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The author of the New York Times bestseller How Starbucks Saved My Life perks up America with inspiring lessons on finding true happiness at any age and any stage of life. In response to overwhelming requests from readers who wanted to know how they, too, could weather downturns, Michael Gill has distilled his experiences into fifteen meaningful lessons. Some of these include: Leap with Faith (Gill accepted his Starbucks job immediately on a whim), Let Yourself Be Helped (pride is even more paralyzing than fear), Look with Respect at Every Individual You See (realize the potential in all who cross your path), and Lose Your Watch (and Cell Phone and PDA) (our obsession with productivity produces madness, not gladness). True fortune, Gill discovered, lies not in fate, but in discovering the innate capacity we all possess to rescue ourselves....

Michael Gates Gill lo tenia todo en la vida: una hermosa casa, una familia que lo amaba, un magnifico empleo en una multinacional de publicidad? En poco tiempo, fue despedido de su trabajo, su mujer lo abandono a causa de una aventura sin importancia y le diagnosticaron un tumor cerebral. Desesperado, a punto de caer en la ruina, acepto un empleo como camarero en un local de Starbucks. Y alli, entre espressos, caffe latte y capuccinos descubrio lo que de verdad importa en la vida: la aceptacion de uno mismo, la amistad, la felicidad verdadera y el sentido de la propia existencia. Una obra conmovedora, inspiradora, dificil de olvidar, cuya prosa amena y aparentemente sencilla atrapa al lector sin remedio a la vez que le transmite una profunda sabiduria. / The son of New Yorker writer Brendan Gill grew up meeting the likes of Ezra Pound and Ernest Hemingway. A Yale education led to a job at prestigious J. Walter Thompson Advertising. But at 63, the younger Gill's sweet life has gone sour. Long fired from JWT, his own business is collapsing and an ill-advised affair has resulted in a new son and a divorce. At this low point, and in need of health insurance for a just diagnosed brain tumor, Gill fills out an application for Starbucks and is assigned to the store on 93rd and Broadway in New York City, staffed primarily by African-Americans. Working as a barista, Gill, who is white, gets an education in race relations and the life of a working class Joe . Gill certainly has a story to tell, but his narrative is flooded with saccharine flashbacks, when it could have detailed how his very different, much younger colleagues, especially his endearing 28-year-old manager, Crystal Thompson, came to accept him. The book reads too much like an employee handbook, as Gill details his duties or explains how the company chooses its coffee. Gill's devotion to the superchain has obviously changed his life for the better, but that same devotion makes for a repetitive, unsatisfying read. Photos not seen by PW. Reed Business Information...