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Mike Rowe

Mike Rowe Books

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“If you ask the other John and Peggy (my parents) how they’ve managed to stay married for well over half a century, they’ll credit an uncompromising level of honesty with each other. If you press them, though, you’ll learn that their commitment to the truth did not extend to their children. Indeed, when it came to raising three boys on a public school teachers salary, my parents lied like rugs./ It was a strange sort of snobbery to develop at such an early age - this sympathy for the more fortunate - but that’s precisely what my parents engendered. With duplicity and guile, they Turn envy to pity. By the time I was eleven, I felt nothing but compassion for classmates of mine who had been forced to wear the latest fashions. Sadly, they had no older cousins to provide them with a superior wardrobe of “softer, sturdier, broken-in alternatives.”

PovertyFamily ValuesGrowing Up Poor
Book:The Way I Heard It
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“My mothers dad dropped out of the eighth grade to work. He had to. By the time he was 30, he was a master electrician, plumber, carpenter, mason, mechanic. That guy was, to me, a magician. Anything that was broken, he could fix. Anybody anywhere in our community knew that if there was a problem, Carl was there to fix it.”

IfsProblemMotherGuyCommunityMastersBrokenDadGradesMechanicMagicianThat GuyOur CommunityCarpenterMasonsPlumberEighth GradeElectricianDirty Jobs
Author:Mike Rowe
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“Happiness does not come from a job. It comes from knowing what you truly value, and behaving in a way that’s consistent with those beliefs. Many people today resent the suggestion that they’re in charge of the way they feel.Those people are mistaken. That was a big lesson and I learned it several hundred times before it stuck. What you do, who you’re with, and how you feel about the world around you, is completely up to you.”

PeopleWorldWayFeelsDoeBigsTodayJobsValuesBeliefKnowingLessonsHundredStuckConsistentMistakenSuggestionsUp To YouResentHow You Feel
Author:Mike Rowe
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“I think a trillion dollars of student loans and a massive skills gap are precisely what happens to a society that actively promotes one form of education as the best course for the most people. I think the stigmas and stereotypes that keep so many people from pursuing a truly useful skill, begin with the mistaken belief that a four-year degree is somehow superior to all other forms of learning.”

PeopleThinkingYearsHappensFormCoursesBeliefFourStudentsSkillsDegreesDollarsSuperiorsMassiveGapsFour YearsMistakenStereotypeLoanStigmaStudent Loan
Author:Mike Rowe
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“I come from a blue collar family, but my personal life isn't. I didn't get the gene that my grandfather had in spades. He was a local hero. Built the church that I went to. Built the house I grew up in. Steamfitter, pipefitter, electrician, mechanic and plumber. I wanted to do those things. But it just didn't come easy.”

WantedHouseEasyChurchGrewHeroGrew UpBuiltBlueLocalsGenesGrandfatherPersonal LifeMechanicMy GrandfatherCollarsPlumberSpadesBlue CollarElectrician
Author:Mike Rowe
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