[dr.dylz]

My only job before my university training was dishwasher in a restaurant ($3.33/hour in the late 1970s) for about a year, on weekends. I went to university back when tuition was $1,500 for my entire bachelor's degree, and although I had enough loans and bursaries for my living expenses, I became a freelancer before I was done with my degree, and after that, I had a "real job" for about a year before becoming self-employed.

As for many things, work ethic (which does not mean working all the time, as some people seem to think) and a sense of responsibility come more naturally to some people than to others.

Totes agree on this one. Before I got a REAL REAL job it took a lot of side jobs/freelancing. It was, to be honest, the darkest days of my life since I didn't know where my life was headed. As Confucius' famous quotes say (got it here)

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop”

It made me realize that once you move past that hard days you'll be ok. After roughly 2-3 of just part-time and freelancing I was able to get a nice job that helped me retire earlier, it somehow gave me a sense of responsibility that if I mess it up it's on me and not the people around me. Also, just want to share, I'm now retired but still handle a small business just so I'm doing something apart from mowing the lawn, remodeling the house, doing some ad-hoc project in the garage, etc. My shop sells car parts and it has been a blast sourcing some tasks to the younger gen (aka my nephew and nieces) since they're more capable and able to configure everything. Just six months ago I was at my darkest cause my shop closed pretty much the whole of 2020 I was managing everything manually. Thank god my nephew has helped me automate some of my processes (didn't know sales can be automated fast with simple clicks - that's the guide he gave me so I can understand it better) and doing some marketing on social media (I'm on social media and I've always hated those ads I see, it nice being on the other side haha he help me with marketing channels like how I would target my audience and stuff). I don't have the means to explore those since I'm getting old and my tiny shop is just a hobby for me to get by and earned a little income.

To be honest the new generation is definitely one of the lucky ones cause before our jobs we're geared towards hard labor and not online. Nowadays you can have a remote-based job that pays like 15-20 bucks per hour.