Mike Rowe on Passion...and Not Following It
- Thread starter joeyd999
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Why would anyone care what Mike Rowe has to say? Including for the crap that he hawks. This guy is ubiquitous and I am dumbfounded as to why.
Wow, I thought everyone loved him! He started out as an opera singer, of all things.
I don't know the guy. But I find his commercials annoying. Like he is an expert on everything.
Funny how "expert" and "experience" have the same root.
He has one of the best voices on TV.
Since we don't have any form of TV (other than DVD), I have had very little exposure to Mike Rowe. I've seen parts of one episode of Dirty Jobs and that's the only reason I have the faintest idea who he is. I've heard a few radio commercials he's done, too, but I don't recall anything about them. So, to me, I can look pretty dispassionately at what he says and not get caught up in any pro/con feelings regarding the messenger.
I found his advice, overall, to have a lot of value. The one area where it is, on the surface, at odds with what I tell students is that I tell them not to pursue a career in a field just because someone convinces them there's a lot of demand and a lot money to be made there, but rather to choose a career in a field they love. The reasoning is simple -- if you don't love what you do (especially if you actively loathe it), then it is very unlikely that you will ever get very good at it. Furthermore, at the end of the day, even if you don't love what you do, you will always be competing against people that do -- and they WILL have put in the effort to get really good.
But I don't think Mike's advice and my advice are very far apart at all. He's basically saying to temper the pursuit of what you are passionate about with a realistic appreciation of your aptitude for that field and an awareness of the opportunities in it. When I'm talking to students, that same message comes across from the opposite direction. I tell them to temper their pursuit of fields with opportunities with a realistic appreciation of their aptitude for that field and an awareness of what they can be passionate about.
I also agree with him that it is entirely possible to become passionate about a job that, initially, you had no passion for at all. I remember my very first job as a dishwasher. It was pure drudgery and I doubt there was anyway I would have ever guessed that it could be any different. But I generally end up taking an interest in getting good (or at least trying) in anything I do and so I spent time trying to figure out how I could do that job more efficiently. I ended up devising a system that let me keep up with four bussers during our busiest times when before it took three dishwashers working together -- and it made the job fun! Now, if I could have figured out a way to parley that into a lucrative career, who knows if I would have done it or not, because I did have bigger dreams that I wanted to pursue (and that I knew I had the aptitude for and that I knew had lots of opportunity), namely becoming an engineer. But I know several people that, like the septic tank cleaner he talked about, did take drudgery jobs that no one wanted to do (and that they didn't want to do either) and turned them into successful businesses and, in doing so, developed a real passion for them.
I found his advice, overall, to have a lot of value. The one area where it is, on the surface, at odds with what I tell students is that I tell them not to pursue a career in a field just because someone convinces them there's a lot of demand and a lot money to be made there, but rather to choose a career in a field they love. The reasoning is simple -- if you don't love what you do (especially if you actively loathe it), then it is very unlikely that you will ever get very good at it. Furthermore, at the end of the day, even if you don't love what you do, you will always be competing against people that do -- and they WILL have put in the effort to get really good.
But I don't think Mike's advice and my advice are very far apart at all. He's basically saying to temper the pursuit of what you are passionate about with a realistic appreciation of your aptitude for that field and an awareness of the opportunities in it. When I'm talking to students, that same message comes across from the opposite direction. I tell them to temper their pursuit of fields with opportunities with a realistic appreciation of their aptitude for that field and an awareness of what they can be passionate about.
I also agree with him that it is entirely possible to become passionate about a job that, initially, you had no passion for at all. I remember my very first job as a dishwasher. It was pure drudgery and I doubt there was anyway I would have ever guessed that it could be any different. But I generally end up taking an interest in getting good (or at least trying) in anything I do and so I spent time trying to figure out how I could do that job more efficiently. I ended up devising a system that let me keep up with four bussers during our busiest times when before it took three dishwashers working together -- and it made the job fun! Now, if I could have figured out a way to parley that into a lucrative career, who knows if I would have done it or not, because I did have bigger dreams that I wanted to pursue (and that I knew I had the aptitude for and that I knew had lots of opportunity), namely becoming an engineer. But I know several people that, like the septic tank cleaner he talked about, did take drudgery jobs that no one wanted to do (and that they didn't want to do either) and turned them into successful businesses and, in doing so, developed a real passion for them.
When I was a short person, all I knew was that it was going to be science. Chemistry? Biology? Physics?
That's the kind of courses that were available in the local public schools.
The opportunities available were in electronics: TV's, appliances, telephones...
All of them start at Electronics, so that's what I did.
Absolutely nothing available on that subject in the public school system.
But that's where the jobs were.
I hated my job as a TV repairman, but I stuck it out for 3 years, then I moved to California where electronic design and manufacturing was an active industry. The years fixing TVs was enough to get me prepared for component level learning.
Then I got the passion.
When I went to Florida, the jobs that jumped up in front of me were about Air Conditioning. With my background, it was child's play. Better money than working in a factory and no more beating my head against a wall trying to figure out how the machines worked.
So here I am. Still doing my passion after retiring from the HVAC business.
That's the kind of courses that were available in the local public schools.
The opportunities available were in electronics: TV's, appliances, telephones...
All of them start at Electronics, so that's what I did.
Absolutely nothing available on that subject in the public school system.
But that's where the jobs were.
I hated my job as a TV repairman, but I stuck it out for 3 years, then I moved to California where electronic design and manufacturing was an active industry. The years fixing TVs was enough to get me prepared for component level learning.
Then I got the passion.
When I went to Florida, the jobs that jumped up in front of me were about Air Conditioning. With my background, it was child's play. Better money than working in a factory and no more beating my head against a wall trying to figure out how the machines worked.
So here I am. Still doing my passion after retiring from the HVAC business.
When I was a short person, all I knew was that it was going to be science. Chemistry? Biology? Physics?
That's the kind of courses that were available in the local public schools.
The opportunities available were in electronics: TV's, appliances, telephones...
All of them start at Electronics, so that's what I did.
Absolutely nothing available on that subject in the public school system.
But that's where the jobs were.
I hated my job as a TV repairman, but I stuck it out for 3 years, then I moved to California where electronic design and manufacturing was an active industry. The years fixing TVs was enough to get me prepared for component level learning.
Then I got the passion.
When I went to Florida, the jobs that jumped up in front of me were about Air Conditioning. With my background, it was child's play. Better money than working in a factory and no more beating my head against a wall trying to figure out how the machines worked.
So here I am. Still doing my passion after retiring from the HVAC business.
I stayed home from elementary school on the days the TV repair man would come. A big Zenith console. He was the guy that told me to become an electrical engineer. At the time, Casey Jones was the only engineer I knew (Casey the local kids show host, not the famous one).
High school came along and they offered an Electricity and Electronics course (full year in the shop classes area). I took it. The second semester we built an AM radio. The first step was to breadboard it with brass nails as nodes and foam as the board. After tuning the inductors, we disassembled the components and put everything on a PCB and stuffed it in a plastic box. It looked like a radio from Sears. No DIY feel or success left.
Fast forward 35 years and I stumbled upon a breadboarded radio of the same model. Someone just framed the breadboard and stopped there. I bought it at the garage sale for $1.
When I was a short person, all I knew was that it was going to be science. Chemistry? Biology? Physics?
That's the kind of courses that were available in the local public schools.
The opportunities available were in electronics: TV's, appliances, telephones...
All of them start at Electronics, so that's what I did.
Absolutely nothing available on that subject in the public school system.
But that's where the jobs were.
I hated my job as a TV repairman, but I stuck it out for 3 years, then I moved to California where electronic design and manufacturing was an active industry. The years fixing TVs was enough to get me prepared for component level learning.
Then I got the passion.
When I went to Florida, the jobs that jumped up in front of me were about Air Conditioning. With my background, it was child's play. Better money than working in a factory and no more beating my head against a wall trying to figure out how the machines worked.
So here I am. Still doing my passion after retiring from the HVAC business.
Retired? Become a consultant. You could make some coin selling HVAC advice on a site like FixYa.com
Mike Rowe gained notoriety from his Dirty Jobs show, wherein he gave recognition to people who normally are ignored.
I watched the show while it was on, and I liked it. I liked his attitude and the way he portrayed the people on his show. Since then he has done nothing but good things. I am subscribed to him on Facebook so I've seen or am familiar with just about everything he's done publicly in the past years and I have nothing bad to say about him. He is currently working on a show called Returning The Favor, wherein he highlights people making a difference in their communities.
Mike Rowe seems (to me) more genuine than most people; especially most celebrities. He seems very down-to-earth and level-headed. He has responded to many of his critics, and is always very polite about it. I've listened to a great many of his opinions on various issues and I wish he were the president, or at least advising the president.
And he demonstrates a respect for the "common folk" that cannot be faked.
I've been You-Tubing lately and saw occasional comments about who's the CEO and de-monetizing contributors to the tune of, "not advertiser friendly". Something is happening in the management of YouTube and it is not strictly consistent. Possibly an algorithm marking content as "good" or "bad" and then needing humans to review the results. The explanation for the Mike Rowe blockage might simply be a poorly written piece of computer code.
There is some good stuff on YouTube. Right now I have one marked because it is as difficult for me to understand as BR549. I'm going to have to play that every day for a week to get all of it to sink into my skull.
ps, My adblocker software is so good that I've never seen a YouTube advertisement, so I have no idea what kind of advertiser might find certain content to have a negative influence on cash flow.
I've been You-Tubing lately and saw occasional comments about who's the CEO and de-monetizing contributors to the tune of, "not advertiser friendly". Something is happening in the management of YouTube and it is not strictly consistent. Possibly an algorithm marking content as "good" or "bad" and then needing humans to review the results. The explanation for the Mike Rowe blockage might simply be a poorly written piece of computer code.
There is some good stuff on YouTube. Right now I have one marked because it is as difficult for me to understand as BR549. I'm going to have to play that every day for a week to get all of it to sink into my skull.
ps, My adblocker software is so good that I've never seen a YouTube advertisement, so I have no idea what kind of advertiser might find certain content to have a negative influence on cash flow.
I’m sure BR549 can explain it all with angular momentum.
See you in PM.
Don't laugh too hard. BR549 has a good grip on stuff that is so foreign to me that I have to study his posts, and I don't mean like HP who obfuscates while seeming to believe there is nothing odd about her use of words. BR549 lays it out in plain words, but he's at least 3 layers ahead of me.
Agree.
I've always found that any job becomes, at the very least, a lot less unenjoyable (I have to allow for the possibility that some jobs might simply not be able to me made enjoyable) if I put forth the effort to try to do it extremely well. This included being lowered into a fifteen foot deep industrial steam cleaning pit when I was about 14 for the purpose of scooping out about three decades of grease and grime and then unplugging the slots that let the water seep out into the field. I was in there with another guy and the two of us could barely fit back to back. But we discovered that if we slowly rotated ourselves, spiking a couple slots with each increment, we could go a lot quicker than trying to do half of the slots on each row while standing in the same position because we could keep our arms at an optimal angle to the slot. That not only made the job a lot quicker, but it actually made it kind of fun as we tried to establish and maintain as fast a synchronized rhythm as we could.
