PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

Before I embarked on a professional career, I took almost any job to make ends meet, both as I headed toward college, as well during my college years.

That included delivering newspapers, pumping gas and working as a janitor.

I report this, not to come across as some kind of holier-than-thou individual, but to illustrate what, for me, mimicked a headline in the Wall Street Journal the other day.

It was this:

My Advice to Grads: Start Mopping

Doing work that feels beneath you always pays off in the end.

Good advice, I say.

After you are done with schooling, there will be plenty of time to seek better jobs.

Here’s more from the Wall Street Journal piece written by Tyler Bonin, a high school economics teacher in North Carolina:

“Every commencement season, thousands of graduates are treated to something I (the writer) call ‘standard keynote language.’ Everyone can recognize these tiny, easily digestible nuggets of wisdom: ‘Don’t be afraid to take risks,’ or ‘Be courageous.’ And the classic: ‘Follow your passion.’ This is sound, albeit clichéd, advice. What would I recommend? ‘Mop your way to success.’

“A mop, used for cleaning floors, isn’t a magical tool for success. Rather, it is a reminder that there should be no task considered beneath you.

“Certainly there is a time to be bold, but there is also a time for humility. A task once considered beneath you could actually be the key to your success. Do the job nobody wants, because, believe it or not, somebody appreciates it. Volunteer to learn and to provide value to others. Find a dream job by first doing the rote tasks in that field, without complaint. Pick up a mop.”

I did that. I picked up a mop – twice. The first time was when I lived in Portland, Oregon and the work involved cleaning up a pizza parlor. Imagine the leftover pieces I found on the floor!

The second time was when I worked in a hospital in Seattle, Washington while in college.

Frankly, both jobs taught me a stark truth: I didn’t want those jobs to be my livelihood. They sparked a continuing interest in me, as the author above put it, “to follow my passion,” which was writing for newspapers (which, as the preamble to this blog indicates, I did before embarking on other aspects of a career that always involved writing).

Lessons learned by holding onto a mop.