It wasn’t a good day at work.<\/p>\n
I had to bring this young engineer into my office and tell him to shut up.<\/p>\n
He’s young, and like many young kids he gets a bit mouthy, especially in the hallways where other people can hear him.<\/p>\n
Sure, we’d all like to make more money and sometimes the promotions come slow – but complaining about it publicly is never a good thing.<\/p>\n
I remember what it’s like to be him.<\/p>\n
When you’re 22 you own the world and you know you can do anything you want and do it well…and you want it now.<\/p>\n
I have to remember nobody knows the rules in their first job.<\/p>\n
We don’t come out of college with a sheet of paper telling us what we should and should not do to stay out of the politics of the office.<\/p>\n
Be nice, be appropriate, don’t risk, don’t push.<\/p>\n
I don’t remember when the enthusiasm of youth goes away.<\/p>\n
When you have a mortgage or a couple of kids or the corporation finally beats you down?<\/p>\n
When the boss (me) sits you down and tries to tell you it’s time to grow up without breaking your spirit can be a difficult thing.<\/p>\n
I look at some of the pricks running departments today and wonder how they ever were considered good enough to be in a position to affect someone’s whole life.<\/p>\n
People like me don’t leave legacies.<\/p>\n
The things we built were done with others, and they probably will be torn down and rebuilt again and again.<\/p>\n
We just try to live a decent life, cry in private over what our country is turning in to and maybe leave things a little better than how we found them.<\/p>\n
For people like me, our legacy is molding young men and women into something special and keeping their soul alive until they can survive on their own.<\/p>\n
I guess that’s okay.<\/p>\n