WORK ETHIC by Mark Goldsmith

“Well, I think it goes back to who we are, where we come from. Western Pennsylvania was a wonderful place to grow up in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. There were plenty of jobs—it was from, basically, the coal business, and the iron and steel business. Twenty thousand men were employed at Bethlehem Steel and another four or five thousand at U.S. Steel, so during the war years, and into the 50s, it was quite a boom area and it was a great place to grow up. Very people-oriented, very non-beaurocratic—people were who they were, you earn everything that you got. The concept of having a pool or having some special things given to you because of who you are and what you were really didn't exist for us, we earned everything. And I think, the whole idea—we were talking before—the work ethic. I think if there's anything that differentiates western Pennsylvania—and I'm not—I'm sure there are other parts of the country that have it also—is the basic work ethic. We were taught at a very early age that you had to be responsible for your actions as early as possible, that you had to work and earn something for yourself. I remember, since I live in New York City now, and my children were privileged to go to private schools right through their senior year, and then they went off to college. And they both came back after their freshman year and we had a meeting; sat down at dinner with my wife and I and they said. ‘We have a question.’ ‘What was that?’ ‘How come we're the only kids in high school who worked?’ And I said, well, that's the way it is in our family. That's what you do in western Pennsylvania.”