Rule of Life #1

My father told me as a young man that there are several rules of life that he lived by, and that he thought I should live by as well.

I thought he was going impart the wisdom of the ages on me.

Boy, was I wrong! Or, at least, I felt that way when he told me the first rule, and where it came from!

YOU KNEW THE JOB WAS DANGEROUS WHEN YOU TOOK IT.
- Super Chicken (Jay Ward Productions)

My father was big fan of Saturday morning cartoons and would watch them with his three children (me being the youngest) as we were growing up. He reminded me that Super Chicken was one of the three cartoons from the "George of the Jungle" show from the mid-to-late 1960s. The quote is part of the cartoon's theme song, and Super Chicken is always saying it to his assistant, Fred the Lion, when Fred is getting beat up while trying to help Super Chicken catch a bad guy.

I asked my father how Super Chicken rates Rule of Life #1.

He asked me if I remembered when I had my newspaper route at age 10. I remembered. He asked me how proud I was when I doubled the size of the route and won a banana seat bike. I remembered being very proud. He asked if I remembered at age 9 or 10 when there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground in near-blizzard conditions, and I decided to walk my papers around my two-mile route in a basket on a sled, rather than not deliver them that afternoon. I told him, "Yes, I remember one of the ladies at the end of my route made me come in and warm up and call you."

"A lot of other kids would've just not delivered the papers, or they would've waited for a ride from their parents. Why did you do what you did?"

"I thought I was responsible to get the paper to the people's houses in time for them to read at dinner, and that was the only way I knew how to do it. It was very hard, but I thought it was part of my job."

"Right! You knew the job was dangerous when you took it!"

My father continued, "So many people want to move up in the world the easy way. They want power. They want to make a lot of money. They want to the boss of a lot of people. They want nice things for themselves and their family. And they finally get a job that gives them some or all of these things...."

"...and they complain about it! They grouse about the fact that now that they may have to work 10-hour days without getting paid overtime anymore, even though their salary may be higher than they previously earned, including overtime. They have to carry a pager and be on call. They now have to worry about other people's problems, since they are a boss. And they grouse and grouse..."

"Do you know anybody like that, son? Someone who takes on a greater responsibility, and then starts complaining that they have more to do, even though they may be getting rewarded well for it?"

"Tell them, 'You knew the job was dangerous when you took it,' and walk away. Always take on greater responsibility as a great opportunity, and take it on with a smile."

"You knew the job was dangerous when you took it."