What Jobs Are Beneath You? Are You Limiting Yourself?
Lessons I learned from my father.
A black friend of mine posted on Facebook that he refused to pick the cotton from a bottle of aspirin. It made me smile. It was a great example of how differently we can view ourselves. No job is beneath me.
My first job was cleaning my father’s office once per week for a dollar. I was so little that my mother had to wring the mop for me.
I learned to hunt and fish. Part of that was learning to clean fish and game. It is messy business.
My parents bought a farm when I was about 14 years old. I loved it. I learned to drive a tractor. I milked a cow. I helped my father castrate roosters and pigs. I cleaned the barnyard and distributed the manure to a field for crops. I helped deliver a calf.
While a man was leveling the yard around the house, the tractor wheel found the septic tank. The lid mashed down and sent a small portion of the contents back through the toilet with enough force to hit the ceiling. Dad decided to empty the septic tank. He handed me full buckets, and I dumped them into a 55-gallon barrel to take to the field. The picture at the top is a septic tank.
I learned to work on my car. I changed shock absorbers, replaced brakes, changed oil, overhauled a carburetor, changed plugs, and set points. I replaced the headliner and seat covers. I even painted my car!
My first job minimum wage job at the Independence Airport. I cleaned the office, mowed the grass, and fueled planes. I also gave wind advisories to pilots over the radio.
My second job was working for Star Foam. I made polystyrene products. The polystyrene came as small beads that looked like salt. The beads would expand when steam was applied. If we wanted to fill bean bag chairs, the beads just went through an expander. If we wanted flotation or insulation, we pre-expanded the beads to the size of BBs then put them into a mold. Steam was applied and the beads expanded and fused. In the summer, I would be working with steam while it might be over 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside. There was no air conditioning. We did use fans. I sweated through the day.
Then I went to college. My first job was at IBM. I was trained to be a system’s engineer. After three years, I quit that to go to chiropractic college.
However, that early training of dirty jobs helped me throughout my life. I’m not too good to do anything.
Ben, my second oldest son, was surprised and a little appalled when I wrapped a garbage bag around my arm and stuck my hand down our septic tank to find the filter that needed to be cleaned. That didn’t bother me a bit.
With all that as background, imagine how I felt when my front desk employee didn’t want to clean the restrooms or make coffee. She thought those jobs were beneath her. I said, “Who do you think cleaned the restrooms and made coffee yesterday? It was me.” She said, “You just want me to do the jobs that you don’t want to do.” I said, “Yes. That is the way the world works. An entrepreneur does everything until they make enough money to hire someone. Then the employee does things that free up the entrepreneur to be more productive. You can’t see patients. You can learn to make coffee and clean the restrooms.”
I suspect it is people with low self-esteem that believe jobs are beneath them. They don’t have self-confidence. My friend, Gary, gave me an insight. I told him about the water filter for my fishpond.
We bought a pump and filter from a store. I was having trouble taking it apart to clean it. I went back to the store and asked the owner how to take the filter apart. He took one out of the box and showed me. Next time we were in the store, I thanked the owner and told him about the silly mistake I was making. He looked at me and said, “Most people wouldn’t admit that.”
When I told Gary the story, he said, “We call that self-confidence. You know you are okay. You can say anything to anybody because you don’t care what they think. You know you are okay.”
There is probably something to that.
I am very grateful that my father taught me that no job is beneath me. I wonder about people who believe they are “too good” to do some jobs. They often want to do something that they either don’t have the talent or the training to do.
I’ll close with a story a man told me. His son graduated from the University of Washington and was trying to make it in Seattle. He was having no luck. He came back to Bellingham and went to the Bellingham Technical College. He made more money as an appliance repair man than he was making with his UW diploma. In addition, his expenses were much lower in Bellingham than they were in Seattle.
Do you know someone who could benefit from this article? Send it to them. Sometimes what seems like a job that is a rung down the ladder, can result in a lifestyle that is several rungs higher.