“My name’s Mike Rowe, and this is my job. I explore the country looking for people who aren’t afraid to get dirty — hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us. Now, get ready to get dirty.”
~ says Mike Rowe at the beginning of each episode as host of the “Dirty Jobs” series from the Discovery Channel
Have you ever wondered what it was like to be a sheep farmer castrating lambs? crab fisherman in dangerous waters? sewer inspector? garbage collector? alligator farmer?
In his television series from the Discovery Channel, Mike Rowe spends a day in these “dirty jobs” doing the “dirty work” alongside other workers. In telling their stories, he has awakened to the misconceptions that we often hold around work.
Many years ago, I spent a day with a friend who was a cattle rancher on his farm. He neglected to tell me this was the day to harvest Rocky Mountain oysters. (For those of you who do not speak the language, that means the day to castrate the male cows.) Needless to say, as someone who grew up in the city, my eyes were opened … very wide. Of the many things that I learned that day: I discovered there is a lot that I do not know about the jobs people do. There is also a deep sense of practicality in people who work close to the land. These people hold a wisdom of experience passed on through generations that is not always contained in books. The other thing that I will never forget: the mischievously look in his eyes as he was making a young doctor squeamish.
In learning from these dirty jobs, Mike Rowe says, “The worst advice I ever got … Follow your passion.” Watch the video to figure out why he thinks we should change our attitudes about work.
Watch TED Talk by Mike Rowe, “Learning from Dirty Jobs”
Watch on Amazon
