Mike Rowe Encourages People To Find Identity Outside Of Work
By Movieguide® Contributor
Mike Rowe is sharing his thoughts on the importance of hard work and finding your identity outside of your job.
“Work is one of those things that ought to be one of the great uniters in our country right now,” Rowe said while appearing on PRAISE ON TBN. “Once upon a time, it was. Nobody in this country would dare logically make a case against the benefits of hard work…Today, there is an affirmative push to challenge anyone who says, ‘Wait a second. Maybe the problem is you’re not working hard enough.’ If you say that, that’s heresy.”
He continued, “We’re divided in just about every possible way, on every possible thing, but work shouldn’t be one of those things.”
Rowe also spoke about the importance of taking the idea of passion out of people’s perceptions of work.
“The road we take in pursuit of what we’ll call job satisfaction; that’s changed,” the DIRTY JOBS host explained. “There was a time when people who were happy in their work didn’t start their quest for happiness by trying to identify the approximate cause of their bliss.”
Rowe continued, “We’ve told a whole generation of kids that your happiness depends on what you do, not who you are, and we’ve given them a road map that takes them right off a cliff. And we’ve encouraged them, for their trouble, to borrow more money than they’ll ever be able to pay back — money, by the way, that we can’t even afford to lend them. To train them for jobs that don’t exist anymore. Everything is backwards.”
“The people on DIRTY JOBS…none of them are doing the thing they identified in their youth as their wish fulfillment. These are people who looked around and said, ‘Where’s everybody going? I’ll go the other way,’” he concluded.
Rowe has dedicated himself to talking about the importance of skilled labor jobs. His foundation, mikeroweWORKS Foundation, was created to spread this message.
“We’re on a mission to help close the skills gap by challenging the stigmas and stereotypes that discourage people from pursuing the millions of available jobs,” the foundation’s website reads. “We’re redefining the definition of a good education and a good job, because we don’t think a four-year degree is the best path for the most people. We want people to understand the impact of skilled labor on their lives, and we’re convinced that the solution has to start with a new appreciation for hard work.”
Part of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation’s work involves creating scholarships for vocational school students.
The organization recently awarded 16 students from Wyoming’s WyoTech school, which “helps train aspiring automotive and Diesel mechanics as well as specializing in collision and refinishing technology.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Rowe’s efforts to popularize skilled labor:
DIRTY JOBS star Mike Rowe recently spoke about the importance of skilled labor in today’s world.
“In the mid-late 70s, we decided as a culture that more people needed to get an advanced degree,” Rowe said during an appearance on PRAISE ON TBN. “We were probably right. We needed more people to enthusiastically pursue a university education, but in order to convince people that their best chance of success was a four-year degree, we began promoting four-year degrees at the expense of all the other forms of education.”
Rowe is attempting to combat this “skills gap” with his foundation, mikeroweWORKS.
“We simply try to show the country examples of people who have bridged that disconnect by learning a skill that’s in demand, by figuring out how to operate that thing or whatever it is, and by not making skilled training the enemy.”
