On my second day of classes this semester, I learned a very important lesson from my economics teacher. I walked in the class and remember being intimidated by him — until he opened his mouth. I was astounded by the wisdom he had and all that he had to say. Something that really stuck out to me was when he was talking about highly skilled, skilled and unskilled workers. He started out by asking us some professions we thought were "highly skilled." I kept my hand down, but people said things along the lines of a doctor, lawyer, pharmacist, etc. Next was "skilled." People named jobs such as a teacher, secretary, etc. And lastly, he asked us some professions we thought were "unskilled." Ditch digger, janitor, and a few others were named.
After we volunteered out answers, he looked around the classroom and said,
"Wrong."
I was confused, but figured he was onto something, and intently listened to what else he had to say.
I will never forget what he said next.
He told us that no job is unskilled. He told us that it does not matter what your job title is, as long as you do the best you can at whatever job you do. He said that "it's not what you wear, it's what you do."
He asked us if we thought that some janitors were highly skilled at what they did, and the class nodded in agreement. He then asked us if we thought that there were some doctors that really weren't passionate at what they were doing, and we nodded again.
He went on to say that society today puts so much emphasis on fancy job titles. We put everyone on such a high pedestal and it makes our heads bigger than they already are.
He reminded us that no matter what job we do, to make sure we do the best we can every day at work. That our title really isn't important. What is important is that we are passionate about what we are doing, and do our job to the best of our ability.
I may not understand anything else I am learning in economics, but that lesson was something I really understood.
I learned on this day to never fall asleep in class because your professor might say something worthwhile.
