How Having a Crappy Job When You Are Young Builds Character For Life!
Anyone else here have a crappy job when they were a kid? My foray into the work world started at the age of fourteen (which I don’t even think is legal in the states). I can say without a doubt I had a few crappy jobs when I was young.
Here’s the kicker….
Best Thing That Could Have Happened!!!
In this post let’s discuss a few reasons why having a crappy job when you are young builds character for the rest of your life.
Let me start with a story….
The summer when I turned fourteen I got a job working as a porter in the kitchen of my neighbors bakery.
Is anyone familiar with the duties of a porter? If you are then you know it’s clearly falls into the category of crappy job.
Having to scrub pans with layers of bakery ingredients caked on them in a steaming hot kitchen is miserable. Ending the day on your hands and knees literally scraping the film of flour, dust, etc. off the floors is not my idea of a good time either.
Even though it was miserable at the time, I don’t regret the experience of that job nor some of the others I had while young. (Working at a fish and clam market was a close second for the worst.)
Let’s start with the obvious way these experiences build character...
Work Ethic
Clearly, when you just get handed stuff it is difficult to build any kind of work ethic. I mean, how can you if you don’t have to work for anything?
I think there is a next level to building work ethic and having really crappy jobs early in life is a big catalyst for getting there as you need to learn how to push through discomfort, being uncomfortable and even beyond exhaustion to finish the job required.
That is an ability that can be grown through experience in my opinion. Just like working out a muscle to make it stronger and endure more. You are working out your will to continue and each barrier you break through moves you to a stronger and stronger constitution.
This reasoning may be why I have always had a problem with the participation trophy. You are getting rewarded just for showing up, but showing up is a part of life to even give yourself a chance at success.
Hell, showing up is the easiest part in my experience.
Responsibility
Learning responsibility at a young age is so important for us in our adult lives. After you are grown, there is no parent holding you accountable 24/7. You are on your own to be a responsible adult. To fulfill whatever obligations you have decided to take on in life, such as: a job, a home, a competition, etc.
I know way too many people that still struggle with this concept well into adulthood. And this is just my personal experience, but all of them had easy street in high school. They did not work any kind of job in high school, let alone a crappy one.
When you have a job when you are young, especially one that you do not like, you literally have to force yourself to be responsible because X task needs to get done and even though you hate that task you will lose your job if you do not do it.
There is of course the dynamic of parents giving their kid an allowance that requires them to do specific tasks around the house. However, this doesn’t have nearly the same impact if you ask me. If the child decided to be irresponsible and skip the task to go hang with their friends – you are not getting fired from your parents.
You will still live there and probably have an opportunity to earn allowance the next week even. The consequence just isn’t the same.
Independence
It also gives you a sense of independence before you become a legal adult. Even though you still rely on your parents for housing and food you have now gotten a taste of what it is to be able to purchase things on your own. You are not 100% reliant of other people to survive.
Like anything else in life, you need to experience something to learn the better ways to go about it. It is much better to blow all your money earned from a job when you are a teen then after you are out on your own and have rent to pay. That lesson is a lot easier to take when you are still a kid and it also sets you on the right foot when you are an adult.
Culminating in Character
The above examples are just a few of many items that build character, which is something that will serve you well in life.
Because……
You can't know "super awesome" without knowing "ultra-shitty" to quote @winstonwolfe
Regards,
Post Image Source : pixabay
What a lovely piece.
I totally agree with you on this.
I mean the formative years of conditioning is within our teen periods where we learn a lot from our surroundings and begin to copy a lot of the things we see.
If we instil the principles of hardwork and dedication in ourselves , it will become a lot easier when we enter into adulthood.
You said it all
Thank you and yes, those teen years are pivotal.
Definitely true. I have worked with so many people who are fresh out of high school and clueless, and early jobs really help split the wheat from the chaff, or at least that sums up my experiences with first time workers.
People will eventually just stop showing up if they aren't up for a real job, and it's usually the people who don't have any major financial responsibilities, I've noticed, that are quickest to drop out
Yeah, it's funny you mention people being clueless out of school. When I went away to college I had already worked a full-time job for a year and was doing my own laundry, paying bills, etc. Meanwhile, there were students who had no idea how to even do laundry.
It's sad how many skills people seem to be lacking now days lol. They don't seem to have any motivation to improve either
Yeah, I find it amusing if a cash register (read: computer) goes down that most people can't even make change. The machines really are going to take over...lol
the one thing i've learned form myriad of crappy jobs, is how to spend with budget in mind and invest some instead of just letting it sit there in the bank
Yes, wise words!
Invest in what may I ask?
well established stocks, mutual funds and ofcourse cryptos :)
They all sound risky in these times. Do I here crash.
Honestly not taking a risk is the biggest risk, and there will always be high risk/low risk investments, key is to diversify, for eg investing in amazon right now is low risk as to investing in say snapchat.
That I all agree with, diversify, and social media.
I have had a ton of crappy jobs when I was young, I actually started working when I was twelve years old working summer jobs like paper routes, strawberry and raspberry picking, when I was sixteen years old I had my first paycheck job as a waiter, dishwasher and maintenance jobs. It helped me save up money for my first car and that got the flexibility to get a better job and pretty much help launch myself into building a good experience resume and definitely helped build my character and taught me a lot of tough life lessons too.
Yes! Used the money I made working throughout HS for the same thing, but my first car completely on my own dime. Good stuff man!
I worked in a shellac factory while going to highschool in around 2000. The building was from world war 2 and use to be a bomb factory. I worked extremely hard physical labour in this hot steamy place and still went to the gym after lol. I was shredded! I literally got paid peanuts at 7 cad an hour. Stuck with it for almost 2 years.
The good old days! Lol. Ok maybe not that good....but good to do when you are young. I'd probably have a stroke if I tried to do that stuff now.
Oh ya, I can still work hard...just in short bursts now lol. What kept me going back than was a picture of a 5l mustang I wanted so bad
thank you for sharing with us, you have a great story !!
Thanks!
you're welcome
What if you had a good career in your 20s and 30 somethings then have a crap job in your 40s? Still building character or washed up? Best to get it out of the way early in life.
Oh goodness....any experience of adversity build character and in that scenario some adversity has likely come into life.
Even though I started working since I was 15 to be able to keep paying for my school etc. I can't say it was a shitty job. 3 evenings a week I'd work in a videorent store and even though it was a lot of responsibility and it got really crowded during my hours it was still k I'd say.
The only time that sucked was when a "friend'' of mine stole 700euros and I ended up working half a year for free because I wanted to pay it back, and I had to take an extra job to be able to pay for my bills. That one not being that nice!
I worked in a factory that produced medicines and had to sort out huge buckets of yellow pills (taking out the bad ones), or put pills in boxes with the prescription etc... still have nightmares of that place lol!
Overall I'm grateful for all the jobs I've done ever since then. Some nice, some less nice. Because in the end it made a stronger, disciplined and a more responsible person.
Well there you go. You still faced a big responsibility on paying that money back and that adversity would not have been there if you weren't working that job. Even a job you like can teach valuable lessons, especially in our teen years.
That is very good of you to pay back that money, even though technically you were probably not required to do so. Shows alot of integrity, something that is lacking a bit in today's society.
True! I did get some valuable life lessons out of it nevertheless!
My boss knew I didn't do it, but since it was my responsibility he told me he had to let me go.
I felt really bad about the situation and told him I'd come and work for free till it would be paid back,without any obligation of taking me back afterwards.
I knew it was the right thing to do, and I actually did end up working there a for a few more years afterwards as well! :)
Ah, I'm still doing that crappy job! It's the main reason I work towards being financially independent. Great post man, so true!
Definitely keeps stuff in perspective. Keep grinding my man!
I agree! That's why I'm so happy I did a term with the military, because it taught me 1. that I want to be my own boss and 2. how to handle what life throws at you.
Great post.
Hoorah! Thank you for your service.
Absolutely! :)