Page 82 - The Way to the Top

Steven T. FLORIO

Vice Chairman of Advance Magazine Group

One day, when I was about twelve, I was down in my carpenter
grandfather’s basement workshop when he said, “You should start earning
your own money. You clean up this wood shop and I’ll pay you what it’s

worth.”

So I spent the next three hours making that place shine. I swept up all
the wood shavings; I wiped down every piece of equipment and made it
gleam. I stacked all the wood neatly.

Then I found my grandfather and we went back to the shop. He looked

around for what seemed like a very long time. Then he nodded slowly and
said, “Fantastic!”

You can imagine how proud I felt.

Still nodding his approval, he reached into his pocket and handed me
my wages—a quarter! Twenty-five cents.

A quarter?! I couldn’t believe it. Even in 1960 a quarter for three hours
of work was nothing to an American kid.

He said, “I want you to learn something about the world.

“In the real world, cleaning up is useful, but it’s not worth much.
Anyone can do it. It’s worth, maybe, a quarter.

“Now, if you had built something useful with these tools, a bookcase

maybe—something that was functional—that would have been worth a bit
more.