Mike Rowe - Full Speech at Opening Ceremony of SkillsUSA's 2013 national conference

Oh my goodness, there are so many of you dressed similarly. Hi Skills USA, I'm so glad you let me clear this up before we get started. I am personally very happy to finally be here with you. I want to thank you all. and to each of you for coming from where you came to be here for clapping and standing up when you did and made me cry a little. It's really great to see you secondly, let me apologize for being late. I'm not late tonight, but about eight years ago, Skills USA invited me here and it took me a long time to get it done.

I was backstage talking to some of the other Red Coats guys trying to figure out why. It took a long time for this to happen and I started taking some notes. I normally don't use notes at all, but these excuses are valid and I just want to get this out of the way. Dirty Jobs aired in 2003 and Sometime in 2004, the people who run this organization must have seen that it is very nice. The people who run this organization called and said, Hello, could you come and speak at our

national

convention? I said, "You know," I'd love to let me check it out. the Dirty Jobs calendar and luckily, uh, I had a prior engagement in Nevada, someone here from Nevada, oh oh, what a crazy coincidence, any of you know that Bob is coming, the pig farmer outside of Las Vegas, this guy in 2005, I would have been here. but I had to go to Las Vegas Nevada to meet a guy named Bob and what Bob does is change, look at me walking on my water, that's very unprofessional.

What Bob does is collect all the uneaten food from the casinos and brings it back. to his pig farm and in his backyard he built this giant contraption and in it he reduces the uneaten food into this giant bowl of soup that he feeds his pigs. Now his pigs grow at twice the normal rate and he takes them to the market twice as long. fast like they normally would and also handles Las Vegas recycling, it smells so bad I can't even describe it, but the reason I wasn't here in 2005 is because I was with a guy named Bob and it smelled like a pig.

Next year when Skills USA called, I said look, I'm going to be there, let me just check it out and it turns out I had a date in Ohio, but this wasn't just any date, this was with a woman named Kristen Stanford I don't know if Did any of you see this episode, but in Ohio they do this snake research in a place called Puttin Bay, and what Kristen does for a living is kind of fascinating: she catches water snakes from Lake Eerie and she takes them back to her laboratory and then he makes it vomit and the way you make a snake vomit is by squeezing it like a tube of toothpaste, and what comes out of the snake's mouth, she analyzes it because a scientist and she determines whether snakes are still either endangered or not endangered based on their dietary pattern, so the reason I wasn't here in 2006 was because the next year I was covered in snake vomit with a girl named Kristen in Ohio.

Next year I was sure I was going to be here, it was 2007. I looked at the calendar and was optimistic because it turns out there will be dirty jobs in Kansas. Anyone here from Kansas by chance, oh that's cool, someone's been to Hutchinson. Kansas there's a salt mine in Hutchinson Kansas goes from here to the Great Lakes I spent a week there one day in the past when there were very, very important dirty jobs in agriculture, important in mining that we've been in. gold mines copper mines been in bass salt mines bituminous and anthy coal mines but on that particular day I was in a salt mine and I learned more than I ever wanted to know about salt, you know, once upon a time the salt was more valuable than gold Does anyone know that's true, it's the kind of worthless stuff you accumulate in your brain when you work for the Discovery Channel, but you know that in the past they didn't have electricity, they couldn't produce ice salt, it was the that made civilization possible. so it felt really good to be in a mind, but unfortunately that kept me from being with you in 2007, but in 2008, man, I was sure I was going to make it, but then I got a call from Michigan.

Is there anyone from Michigan where? Did you get those cool lights? They are fantastic. They don't have lights like that on the Mol Bridge, but that's where I went that particular year and spent that day high above the Maol Strait, painting the Maol Bridge green. It's a green bridge now, obviously, but the thing is you never stop painting it, they paint it all year round, 365 days a year and I walked to the cable on the outside of the bridge just to change the light bulb on top and to Long story short, I was higher than I'd ever been at one point and something may have come loose down here and I made a terrible mess of my own wardrobe and I couldn't be here with you. then because I pooped my pants to be honest with you, you think I'm kidding, it happened all the time on Dirty Jobs, it just happened right now a little bit.

I'm kidding, it almost never happens that it's scary, since I was up there at maol bridge next year I was sure I was going to be here, in fact I think I might have even committed, but then things came up on TV and I had to go to Hawaii. There has to be someone from Hawaii. Did you see the episode where we were washing windows in Hawaii, this is probably one of the most popular dirty jobs of all time because once again viewers got to see me scream really loudly like a 10B girl afraid for my life.

My friend Dino washes windows there and he's the only one. Been in the union where you can wash windows the old fashioned way, you sit in a 2x4, call them a bosen chair, right, they don't use scaffolding and repel the sides of these buildings with a squeegee in one hand. and a rosary in the other and you just wash the windows and you just hope that everything works like it was supposed to and well, it kind of did. My cameraman got his hair caught in one of the repellents and it almost ripped his scalp off, but he's okay.

Now I couldn't be here in 2009 because I was in the emergency room with my cameraman in Hawaii. Anyway, you can get the idea in 2010, it was Nebraska that was in Nebraska. I was so sure I was going to get here in 2010, but we finally got there. I had a job that I had wanted to do for years, it's a simple job, it was asphalt paving and I always wanted to do this job because it's a very important part of keeping our infrastructure together, but of course we ended up outside of some A small town in Nebraska, I don't even know if it's on a map, but we spent the day in 110° heat building a road.

My cameraman fainted from the heat, then my sound guy fainted and finally I fainted on the asphalt, so I couldn't be here in 20110 because I fainted, but in 2011, oh this was a heartbreak because we almost booked our tickets to be here, but I ended up in North Dakota. Anyone in North Dakota. North Dakota turned out to be the same. The last dirty job we did in the US and we were in Dickinson and here's some crazy stuff about Dickinson, North Dakota, you know what the unemployment rate is in Dickinson right now, it's like there's a -5% plus of people working. in Dickinson who live in Dickinson they come from all over they work with natural gas anyway they are doing all kinds of things.

I went there to install a cell phone tower and you know what it's like on the high plains. One minute the sun is coming up, you're up there with your TV crew, you're filming a show again, you're 400 feet in the air and the next minute you're in the middle of all the clouds and lightning is everywhere and everyone Anyway, I couldn't be here in 2011 because last year I was being electrocuted in Dickson, North Dakota. I was very optimistic, but then someone at the network had a brilliant idea and they said, Hey, what would Dirty Jobs be like if you just went to In another country I said it would be a lot like here, just further away actually, but they said no. , you should go to Australia, so I said, okay, I'll go to Australia.

There's no one here from Australia, but that's where I was last month. The year I was in an opal mine in Kuber PTI Australia, this is a town you couldn't find on a map, but that's where they mine all the opals in the world in the middle of the Outback and it's pretty exciting work and for me . One more chance to dive headlong into a long, thin hole that I didn't want to be in in the first place, but that happened this year, Dirty Jobs finally ran its course, we did 300, we've been to all 50 states, which brings me here. in front of you, if I just had something to say, I actually have a lot to say, but I know it's a long evening and I'm not going to take much time, but I was backstage listening to everyone who was talking. and so many things struck me that it really is a struggle to know exactly how to address a crowd like this because unlike much of the country, you guys get it, you guys get it already and for years and years to come I'll be out there with the same basic message and that simple message is all those works.

I just mentioned all the people I met, from the bridge workers to the salt miners to the pigs to the farmers to the window washers, you know. The pig farmer in Las Vegas is doing pretty well after that dirty work segment aired he was offered $75 million for his operation he's a dealer he built that thing in his backyard the show got some publicity and the people wanted to buy it, especially they wanted to buy it. It's because pigs make Las Vegas smell funny, but the point is that this man is a success, that guy who washes windows in Hawaii Dino, he was homeless 12 years ago, he washed windows to eat, Today it has 50 employees and a contract for every skyscraper on the main island. he's a tradesman, the people I work with at Dirty Jobs year after year always seem to do better than people think.

They are continually surprised when I tell stories and I have 300. I'm not going to tell them all. In fact, I'm not going to tell you anything else about the program, what I want to suggest is what's in my chest that says deeply disconnected and if I really summed it up, people ask me all the time, would you really learn Mike? What did you learn in 300 Dirty Jobs and what I learned is that well, let me put it this way? The Snap-on CEO put it pretty well, this is the biggest country on the face of the Earth, there's no doubt it's not even close.

I'm biased, I admit it, but I will tell you that we have some challenges and we have a problem and the problem is not in this room, the problem is in the way a large portion of the country thinks about the definition of Good Job, this is complicated . Okay, I'm going to take a minute and talk about it because I'm not an expert on any of this. I only know what I've seen in the last 8 or nine years and in every state I've seen. I mentioned and the 42 I didn't say, people tell me the same thing over and over again, they talk about how hard it is to find people who are willing to learn a skill B Master the skill and C work hard, it's hard to find guys, I I was in an airport, I'm always in an airport, but this happened about two years ago, I got off the plane, I was walking on the gangplank, a guy came up to me dressed in a maintenance uniform, he was doing something under the plane, but came.

Then he said: Hi Mike, I have to stop you. I just want to tell you that my wife and I love the show and we watch it with our kids every Tuesday night and it's really cool because we can tell them that they see all the people doing all the different things that make our civilization work. how cool is that and that's very gratifying and I said thank you so much, I'm glad you look and about halfway across the food court, in front of a sabaro, another guy approaches me. He's about the same age as the first guy.

He wears a three-piece suit. He looks prosperous and says, Hi, Mike and I say yes and he says, "I just want to tell you that you love Dirty Jobs." Watch it with my wife and our kids every Tuesday. oh well, I'm glad to hear that you said it's very funny, you know people are interesting, but it's nice to be able to tell our sons to see what happens if they don't go to college and are now a gentleman with impeccable manners I didn't bother point out that he was an idiot, in fact, what I did is what I did: I thanked him for watching my show because shows like Dirty Jobs simply reflect what most viewers already believe is practically impossible to change.

It's impossible to change someone's opinion with a TV show with a 302 commercial so how can you change this guy's opinion? How did this guy start thinking the way he thinks and how have we ended up with a divided country? the definition of a good job look, people talk about the differences between conservatives, liberals, democrats and republicans, red states and blue states, and whatever you see, the difference in this country between those two people , the first guy who watched a show like dirty jobs and saw a reflection of what matters to him and the second guy who saw it how he saw it, so the way I see it, we need to have a conversation, a big conversation between adults, and I'll tell you whyYou probably know a lot of this, everyone knows unemployment is high, right?

You read the headlines, you're smart people, you also know the skills gap. I'm no longer looking, and yet there are 3 million great jobs available. What's going on? I was in Las Vegas again a couple of months ago. I love that they are listening. It's fantastic. I ran into a woman who runs the local Caterpillar dealer there. I had an amazing conversation. I told her what she was doing and she said Mike, you can't. Imagine we have over 20 positions available right now in heavy equipment repair. Okay, so some of these jobs start, you know, 40 50 60 Grand and with a couple of years of experience and the proper training and certification which, by the way, they'll give you for free. you can make six figures, they can't fill the jobs, they can't fill them.

I heard the story not only of Caterpillar, but companies across the country are struggling to find people who are willing to learn a skill that they are really good at. and work hard and I've been walking around trying to figure out how that happened, how so many people in our country became deeply disconnected and I started having this conversation with my friends on cat and I'm going to tell them You're a very quick story because look, the only stories What really matters are the ones that happened to you and specifically this happened to me before most of you were born when I was a senior in Baltimore Maryland in 19 oh Baltimore so I'm a dropper who assumes that represents , okay, I like it, I like it, hey, Baltimore is a loud city, there's no doubt about it.

I was just a child. I was 17 years old and they called me into my guidance counselor's office. Mr. Dunbar was his and Mr. Dunbar's name. He wanted to have a conversation with me about my future and he started encouraging me quite persuasively to get a 4 year degree. Now I have nothing against the four-year title. The truth is that I finally got one, but at that time I had some problems, first of all, I had no money, second, I didn't know what I wanted to do and I was very honest with Mr. Dunbar and told him, based on the above criteria, Vis A, my lack of funds and my complete and utter ambiguity I think it's better for me to go to a 2-year school, a community college, Mike said, Mike said, that's so far below your potential that you don't want to do it, you want to get your degree and then the world will do it. open up for you and I looked at him and he looked at me and then he pointed over his shoulder it's something I'm going to show you right now he pointed to a sign he had hanging over his desk and this is what that sign is Take a look at it we'll put it on the screen if you can't see it, but take a good look.

Here's a guy with a degree and here's a guy with a wrench and my counselor tells me which one. of these guys you want to be now this is 1979 so of course the legend the legend really highlights what that's like for a little Genius work smart not hard this was part of a college campaign in 1979 and some of you have heard that actually, just with a quick round of applause, who's heard work smart, not hard before, that was kind of a trick I just pulled. I don't want you to applaud the Senate. I just wanted to know that it's not just Me later, when you're bored, not now, but Google works smart, it's not difficult, you will see hundreds of pages, it has become the title of books, it has become the title of efficiency seminars, whatever that means, it's in the loot, it's in the backpacks.

I have a theory. I think working smart and not hard is more than a cliché. I think it's more than a stupid cliché. I think it's the worst advice in the world and I think we take it as a country. I think the country is

full

of people right now. who truly believe they can find success by working smart instead of working hard now 1979 The university needed a public relations campaign and this was part of it posters like that hung in all high schools across the country it worked College enrollment skyrocketed and I did it for the next 30 or 40 years, but some interesting things happened along the way, vocational education classes, yeah, right when I was in high school, auto shop, wood shop, metal shop, they were all over The high schools, they're gone, guys, you know? you have replaced vocational education skills.

The US has essentially become the connective tissue because as a society we stop valuing what happens. Well, years go by, people line up to get into college because, hey, it's the best thing, it's the best way to be successful, everything you need. It's your four-year degree and everything is going to fall into place, did that really happen? Yes, I don't know. There are a lot of people right now who have a four-year degree and can't find a job. Millions more have a four-year degree. -years into their degree and they are working in a field that had nothing to do with what they studied, but the worst of all is that there are many people who paid a lot of money for a four-year degree and who went into debt: we have a billion. student loan dollars on the books right now we are lending money we don't have to kids who will never be able to pay it back so we can educate them for a job that no longer exists, you know what that is? is deeply out of touch, say it with me deeply out of touch, so I talked to my friends at Caterpillar about this and they said: you know something needs to be done, we have to do what we can, other companies are doing what they can, so this is what Do you know I'm a fan?

You know I love you guys, you know you get it and many others don't, instead of telling you how fantastic you are and congratulating you for everything you've done. done and everything you're going to do I decided to come here today to ask for your help I'm not going to fly anymore Sunshine in your red jackets okay I'm going to ask you to help me do something I'm going to ask you to help me change the worst advice in the world world for something not so stupid, something that looks like this now, that's me, by the way, in a cap and gown and standing next to me is what I'll call a lot more. aspirational figure this guy has no student loans this guy has a job this guy likes what he does this guy went through skills usa in some kind of vocational training class and got it this guy good has education he just doesn't have skills educated, he's just not trained, he doesn't know what to do, he's confused by the industrial environment he's in, this guy gets it.

I really wonder what would happen if guidance counselors like Mr. Dunb Bar had a sign that said work smart and hard, so this is a poster I created with my friends at Cat, the old signs down here in the bottom corner left and a very brief explanation of why I think it's the worst advice in the world, so now we have this poster, what are they? Let's do with it I say let's hang it I say let's hang it everywhere I say I say that you look you are going to make a difference in your own life you are already present for that you are going to make a difference in the life of your family, You understand, but I'm telling you that the second man that I described to you at that airport is out there, she's out there, millions and millions of Americans are out there and they don't understand the value that you bring to the table that they don't understand and the importance of the works I presented in my program for 9 years.

They are deeply disconnected from a couple of fundamental truths. I don't think I can close the skills gap. Don't know. yes we can all do it but I know it will never happen unless we change the fundamental conversation that is happening right now to help me make that caterpillar and I came out with a new website surprise surprise it's called deeply disconnected if you go there you can get one of these posters and if you do it and if you feel brave I dare you, I double dare you, bring it back to your high school, hang it in a hallway, find a teacher who understands, let them put it up. your classroom find a guidance counselor let them hang it up take a picture and send it back to me and we'll put together some tips that actually make sense, maybe in a couple years people will work at Google smart and hard and Go , that's where it started, not only do you understand it, not only do you have the talent, not only do you have the will to do it for yourselves and your families, but I call you to go further, go out into the world. be an ambassador for work spread the kind of advice that really matters make a difference have fun in what you do this is the best country in the world but I am not at all impartial when I tell you that it is because of you