Words to Live By

I have finally had enough time to finally read something other than anatomy texts and scientific papers and I finally finished a very inspiring book. The Last Lecture is a memoir by Randy Pausch, a virtual reality and computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a cancer without a cure and kills quickly. Randy died on July 25th, 2008 and left his words of wisdom to his children in the form of a book. His words are ones to live by and I recommend this book to everyone. One of the chapters at the end hit me directly, as some college grads and others think that they are better than what they are given whether it be jobs, classes, etc. The excerpt may be long, but it's worth reading to the end.

51 No Job Is Beneath You

It's been well-documented that there is a growing sense of entitlement among young people today. I have certainly seen that in my classrooms.

So many graduating seniors have this notion that they should be hired because of their creative brilliance. Too many are unhappy with the idea of starting at the bottom.
My advice has always been: "You ought to be thrilled you got a job in the mailroom. And when you get there, here's what you do: Be really great at sorting mail."

No one wants to hear someone say: "I'm not good at sorting mail because the job is beneath me." No job should be beneath us. And if you can't (or won't) sort mail, where is your proof that you can do anything?

After our ETC students were hired by companies for internships or first jobs, we'd often ask the firms to give us feedback on how they were doing. Their bosses almost never had anything negative to say about their abilities or their technical chops. But when we did get negative feedback, is was almost always about how the new employees were too big for their britches. Or that they were already eyeing the corner offices.

When I was fifteen, I worked at an orchard hoeing strawberries, and most of my coworkers were day laborers. A couple of teachers worked there, too, earning a little extra cash for the summer. I made a comment to my dad about the job being beneath those teachers. (I guess I was implying that the job was beneath me, too.) My dad gave me a tongue-lashing of a lifetime. He believed manual labor was beneath no one. He said he'd prefer that I worked hard and became the best ditch-digger in the world rather than coasting along as a self-impressed elitist behind a desk.

I went back into that strawberry field and I still didn't like the job. But I had heard my dad's words. I watched my attitude and hoed a little harder.

Paush, Randy 2008. "The Last Lecture" pp 168-9.