Blue Collar and Proud of It: The All-In-One Resource for Finding Freedom, Financial Success, and Security Outside the Cubicle (3 page)

Even the airlines are adding workers, thanks to the need for upgrading. In the summer of 2008, U.S. Airways hired one hundred mechanics in an effort to boost its performance and on-time record. The mechanics were brought in to troubleshoot, fix broken lights, and replace seats that wouldn’t recline. It may sound like a small number of jobs, but it’s just another way in which blue-collar America is both indispensable and always in demand.

The time has come to stop turning our backs on the blue-collar jobs that have built nations. It’s time to pay attention to the desires and skills of each individual, and it’s past time that we put pride and value back into being a plumber, a carpenter, or a mason. We as a nation must start respecting each other for how hard we work and how well we do our work rather than by the title we have or the diplomas we hang on our walls. It’s time that we as parents, teachers, businesses, and communities wake up, look around, and see the immense benefits gained and contributions made by blue-collar workers.

Where Did the Problem Start?

A survey done in Canada about workforce readiness and attitudes revealed that 86 percent of students said their guidance counselors had not recommended the skilled trades as an option. Seventy-two percent of those same teens said their parents had not encouraged them to go into the blue-collar trades.

Many guidance counselors are totally overwhelmed by the sheer number of students they are expected to advise. Some are responsible for as many as 600 students and have little time to tailor their advice or suggestions. Plus, one way that high schools measure their own success is by the percentage of students who go on to college after graduation. As a result, counselors almost naturally find themselves pushing college and urging students to at least give it a try. Add to all of that the fact that more community colleges have open enrollment, which means almost anyone can take classes, regardless of what kind of student he or she was in high school. The result? College students are taking remedial courses in basic math and literacy skills. Something is wrong with this situation.

Some counselors admit that they hesitate to suggest anything but college for their students, because they fear the wrath of parents who are determined to see their children enroll in a four-year university. Other counselors are simply so overloaded with work that they don’t have time to give personalized advice to each student. A study published by North-western University surveyed eighty guidance counselors around the United States and found that most were trained to respond to post–high school plans the same way: by talking about college. The study found that counselors were trained to help better students apply to four-year colleges, but they couldn’t help much with students not planning on a four-year degree. Vocational teachers and counselors are simply not being encouraged to help work-bound students plan their careers.

This book is about putting pride, excitement, and appeal back into the blue-collar industries. And it’s about showing you the many lucrative, creative, challenging, and exciting options that exist in the blue-collar workforce. It’s time that we all—parents, counselors, and students—take a strong look at each of the available options. With hard work and determination, anyone can build a successful career and life, even without college. I’ve done it, and many people around me have done it. Look around your community or your own family, and you’ll see that successful blue-collar workers are all around you.

Don’t think, though, that not going to college means that your education comes to an end. James Stone III is director of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education in Kentucky, an organization that works to improve career and technical education (CTE) opportunities around the country. CTE is what many of us once referred to as
vo-tech
or
technical school
. Stone’s group also works to improve the transition from high school to work. He says that forgoing college is one thing, but postsecondary training is rarely optional. “To compete globally we need smarter workers.” And by
smarter
Stone really means
better trained
. But Stone points out that nowadays students aren’t always exposed to the trades at an early age. And in some high schools, he says, a retiring woodworking or auto mechanic teacher is likely to be replaced by an English or math teacher. “The only way kids come to know these occupations is through television, ” says Stone. The time for education about the trades needs to start well before high school graduation day.

“People take what used to be a respectable job and disregard it. ” it.

—Blair Glenn, California-based arborist

My Story

If you’re heading off to college because you feel pressured to go or you feel like you’ll never make anything of yourself if you don’t go, then you’ve come to the right place. I’m proof that you can, with a lot of hard work, have a very successful and fulfilling career without college.

I’ve been working as a landscaper for twenty-eight years in Newton, Massachusetts. I didn’t go to college. My father went to North eastern University and wore his class ring proudly every day. He worked as an executive in the finance department of a major company in the Boston area. Growing up, my two sisters and I were expected to do well in school, and college was definitely what happened after high school graduation. But I hated school. I was rebellious. I had trouble focusing and I didn’t test well. And then I started to feel stupid because I wasn’t keeping up with my friends; really, I wasn’t all that interested in doing so. Years later I found out that I actually had attention deficit disorder and some other learning disabilities. Some of us have other problems, such as dyslexia.

Years ago people like us were called brats—kids who couldn’t keep still, who were told we were fidgety or had ants in our pants. Over the years I have seen these characteristics in me, my kids, my nephew, and my friends’ kids. When you try to shape people like this, as if it’s a one-size-fits-all world, you are asking for trouble. As a society we’re all asking for trouble when we make this move. You’re going to get a reaction if you push everyone to do the same thing. Miserable, frustrated teens, being told they are not good enough, are an unpleasant, trouble-making bunch. I know, because I was one.

I’ll admit that I had a bit of a bad attitude. Deep down, though, I knew that I was not a dumb person, but still I felt so lousy about myself. Then the anger started to escalate. It’s a terrible cycle. You really worry that you’re stupid; at least I did, and I know others who did. But I’m not stupid. I was just bored and frustrated and feeling worthless.

I barely made it out of Watertown High School with a diploma. It didn’t help that my friends around me were doing okay, that my sisters were good students, and that my father wanted to know whether I was going to college or not. By ninth grade I knew I wasn’t going, and when I finally told my parents my decision, I felt bad about it. But I also knew in my heart that I would be miserable if I went. On top of that, I knew it would cost my parents a ton of money that would just end up being wasted in the end.

My mother and father weren’t thrilled with my decision, but they ultimately were supportive. That was 1977. When I graduated from high school, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do. I went to work in the Polaroid factory that was close to my hometown. It was monotonous, and I hated punching the clock and staring at the same people and sniffing the same smells every day. I needed more variety and soon landed a job working for Salvuchi Construction Company. I finally felt like I fit in. One of my first projects was helping to build Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, and that’s when I saw guys around me who were making great money, had cash to spend, and seemed happy.

I had grown up pretty spoiled, if not just plain lucky. I had everything I wanted, I wasn’t used to going without or thinking about whether I had enough cash for dinner. But I had married very early and had a son, and I needed to support him. I wanted to give him what my parents had given me. So I spent about eighteen months working at the construction job and then went to work as a jack-of-all-trades for a local businessman, Sal Balsamo. I won’t bore you with all of the details of that job—I did a little bit of everything from maintenance to errands—but I learned a lot from Sal. I didn’t learn much about the trades, but I learned about life and about business. He was my first mentor, someone who inspired me to follow my dreams, take risks, and do what I wanted to do. “Every day you get out of bed is a gamble, Joey. You might as well go for it.” Sal used to say that to me all the time. Now I’ve adopted his mantra as my own. I still repeat it a few times a week.

I knew I wanted to go for it, but it took me a while to figure out exactly what I was going after. I soon decided to start my own landscaping business. I didn’t have a book to guide me and I didn’t have many resources, but I decided I would figure it out as I went along. I started by going around to hair salons in affluent towns around Boston and hanging up fliers advertising my new business. “Will cut grass, ” my signs read. It was simple, without any fuss. I started to get a few calls. That’s all I needed. It was a start, and in the beginning I was using my old beat-up Toyota and stuffing it with my tools and lawn mower. I kept working for Sal, doing my landscaping jobs after work and on the weekends. It was hard work, but I liked it.

In 1980, when I was just twenty years old, the woman I had married way too early up and left. She wanted to be a model and took off, never to be seen again, leaving me with my son Anthony, who was just twenty-three months old at the time. I adored my son so much I barely let him out of my sight. I wanted to be the best father ever, but we were in a lousy situation. Having just started my business, I wasn’t making much money yet. We were living in a small apartment that I named the Bug House since we were sharing our space with a large family of cockroaches.

I was also drinking a lot, which was how I dealt with all of the anger that had been building up over the years. The only reason I’m telling you this is to let you know that you can get through a lot and still come out on top. Even if the cards are stacked against you and it feels like you’ll never get ahead, you will. If you are determined and ready to put in more than 100 percent, you can overcome all kinds of obstacles. Even though I had become an alcoholic, I was a highly functioning one, and within a few years, my business was doing really well. I’ll get into some of the details later, but basically I had found my passion. I enjoyed working outside. I loved making people’s lawns look beautiful, and I started adding additional services and employees to my operation.

Although my mom grew up very poor in Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from where my father went to college, she, like my dad, had certainly hoped that I would get a degree after high school. I think it was especially hard for my father to realize that his son wasn’t going to be the family lawyer or doctor. At first he tried hard through my high school years to push me to get better grades, and then one day he said, “Joe, I washmy hands.Go ahead.Do what you want. Do what you want to do, but be the best.” I was so relieved that he saw that I wasn’t cut out for a career like his. But at the same time I still felt like a failure. My father also threw in one other piece of advice. “Be aggressive, ” he said. It took me a while, but I’ve built an incredible reputation, a company with fourteen employees, and a booming business because I was determined to be the best I could be. And yes, I was aggressive about it.

I often think about my father saying, “Be the best.” That’s my advice to anyone who will listen. “Be the best.” And that is what
Blue Collar and Proud of It
is all about. Follow your
own
dreams and your
own
passions, and be the best you can possibly be. Life shouldn’t be about taking the easy road, nor should it be about doing as little as you can just to get by. This statement applies to absolutely everyone out there, whether you want to be a history teacher or a landscaper, whether you want to go to school to be an architect or go through an apprenticeship to become a welder.

I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t always give 100 percent. I hit some rough patches after high school, and it took me a few years to figure out that I was going to go into the landscaping business. But now, each morning when I get out of bed, I love knowing that I’m going off to give my customers 100 percent.