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Thoughts on Work

From the dawn of time people have worked.  When Adam and Eve were created, the first thing God told them to do was to work.  When they sinned, Adam’s labor became difficult and challenging.  He still worked, however.  After they were kicked out of the garden, God did not start a welfare program for them.  They worked and they ate by the seat of their brow.

When I was growing up, my father let me live in his house for free.  I had chores to do, as a way to learn work.  When I graduated from High School, I was told that if I went to college, I could stay for free, if I got a job or became a bum, I would be charged rent.  I went to college for a while, then went into the military.  When I mustered out, I found employment and have been working ever since.

After a time as a security guard, which is easy work for those fresh out of the military, I got work at Seagate in Scotts Valley.  I continued as a computer programmer, a skill I learned in the Air Force.  I had many bosses, and worked almost as a free lance programming doing work for various departments.  Computer programming is fascinating work and I enjoyed it.  One of my bosses called me into his office and asked me how I was enjoying my job.  I told him I loved it.  That concerned him.  He made it very clear that work was not play.  Work was to be tedious and difficult and play was to be enjoyable and fun.  I said I was sorry, but I found computer programming quite fun and enjoyable.  A challenge to be sure, but more of a puzzle that needed to be conquered.  That baffled him and he transferred me out of his group the next day.

Harvey MacKay put it this way, “Find something you love to do, and you'll never work a day in your life.”  My manager at Seagate needed to  have this on his wall in his office.  I think people need to find their passion, find out what they love to spend their time doing and then figure out how to monetize it.  I was in the military when IBM released their PC.  I worked at Seagate as various companies were releasing computers and the need for hard drives grew.  I wrote software to test hard drives in various systems and to test hard drive firmware.  I would regularly work 19 hours a day working on a particularly difficult problem.  I would get into the zone and shut out the world and just write software.

America has become a strange place with more and more people choosing welfare instead of working.  The fulfillment, the energy, the joy and the love of real work is one of the things that makes America great.  Mike Rowe Works is a great program to teach people how to work.  I love what I do, I am living my passion, and I have not worked a day in decades.

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