Labor Day became an official holiday in the United States in 1884. It honors the American labor movement, which built this country with blood, sweat, and tears and made America great. With Labor Day in five days, I want to remind everyone that the best gift anyone can pass on to the younger generation is the gift of hard work.
According to financial guru Dan Ramsey, we should teach our children to work hard “because it gives them both dignity in a job well done today and the tools and character to win in the future as adults.”
Growing up in a family that owns a business has its advantages. There is always work to be done.
I began my career in the family business at the bottom, as the janitor. Earning 75¢ an hour, I emptied the trash, cleaned the bathrooms—including toilets—and swept the floors.
As a child, I rode in the truck with Dad on Wednesdays in the summer as he delivered newspapers to local outlets.
One summer in high school, I held three jobs: janitor at the newspaper, lifeguard at the pool, and lasting sandals at Brown Shoe Factory.
Brown Shoe was my first experience at piece work, where the laborer is paid by the number of “pieces,” or in my case, sandals, that are done correctly. That was an excellent lesson. Now, with any manual job I do, I give it my best to get the job done quickly. Habits are hard to break.
When our society was primarily agrarian, children, starting at a young age, rose before sunrise to do chores before school. The invention of the internal combustion engine and other machines moved American society from the farm to the city, making life easier.
In many ways, life has become too easy.
Those families living on a farm have an advantage. Their children learn the value of hard work early in life, as there’s always work to do on a farm.
Booker T. Washington said, “Nothing ever comes to one that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.”
Our three children were taught the value of hard work. Jacob was a natural. It’s easy with the firstborn; they naturally want to please their parents. Jacob started out the same way I did, as the head custodian at the newspaper.
After he entered high school, I lost my janitor when he began a six-year career at Walmart. He enjoyed work so much—including the benefits of a paycheck—that some nights, he would work the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, come home, and then do his homework. This allowed him to purchase a 1998 GMC Sonoma extended cab pickup during his junior year with his own money—the benefits of hard work.
It took more convincing with our second child, Ethan, but he has come around. A long time ago, when both Jacob and Ethan were of middle school age, a friend, Ray Oldfather, had access to what turned out to be 15 pickup loads of firewood. As we were cutting and loading the wood for delivery to our home, Ray gave Ethan the nickname “governor” because he tended to watch more than work.
Another way children learn the value of hard work is through sports. This is one of the best reasons for organized sports. Winning takes hard work. In life, there are winners and losers. Sports teaches that lesson.
That is how our youngest learned the value of hard work. Although Abby was the last of our children to have the title of custodian at the newspaper, she learned the value of hard work at the gymnasium. From middle school through high school, she was in the gym four to six hours a night, five days a week, 10 months out of the year.
Her sport was competitive acrobatics. Abigail had two advantages over any competition: she hated to lose and could outwork anyone. As a freshman in high school, she and her two partners received a gold medal at the national USA Acrobatic Gymnastics competition in San Jose, Calif. The benefits of hard work.
Lou Holtz said, “Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that’s the difference.”
The most important lesson in teaching children the value of hard work is to set an example yourself. Do as I say, not as I do, won’t cut it. I assume that I am preaching to the choir; you are a hard worker. Just remember to pass this value on to your children and grandchildren. One day, they will thank you.
