This was a special week for me. I had the pleasure of visiting Johnson Space Center for the ump-teenth time, and for some reason was more inspired than ever. As I looked upon the artifacts and photos of all the things created by the folks at NASA over the years I was moved by just how amazing the human mind really is.

I couldn’t help be think, “All this once resided in someone’s mind, and now here it is. Rockets that can go to the moon, suits that can protect humans in a zero oxygen environment and allow them to float in space.”

It seems the older I get the more I appreciate things like this. I also had another honor and privilege. I got to meet with Jim McIngvale better known around Houston as “Mattress Mack.” McIngvale is the founder and owner of Gallery Furniture, which is a Houston institution.

When I lived in Houston his commercials where he would sign off each one with his tagline, “Gallery furniture will save you MONEEYY” was as common as the McDonald’s jingle. You always knew it was coming. The University of Houston voted McIngvale’s commercials the most annoying on T.V. year after year. Yet, they kept yielding results.

Now Mattress Mack is as know, if not more known, for what he does when he’s not selling furniture. He’s trying to help disenfranchised youth understand the power and value of hard work something he says has been demonized in America.

Listening to Mack talk about his passion for work and how therapeutic it has been in his life is nothing short of inspiring. He described it as “the best therapy there is.”

He believes in it so much he’s set up his own trade school, an elementary school and all sorts of training for his employees at no charge to them. He’s not just trying to create a furniture empire. He’s already done that. Jim McIngvale is by all standards rich. He’s very very rich. He doesn’t have to work another day in his life. He once lost a $13 million bet on the Super Bowl and is able to laugh about it. That’s rich!

However, he is on a mission. You can still to this day walk into Gallery Furniture and find Mattress Mack working. He will most likely be the person to greet you as you walk in. However, he’s not there because he has to be. He’s there because he loves to be. The man loves work, and he wants to share that discovered bliss with a generation of kids who are told as he said, “work is for chumps.”

I am of the firm belief we are all made to work and to produce. We are too capable for this to not be the case. Walking around NASA looking at what working men and women are able to create truly boggles the mind. It’s not just those who create things that shoot into space who know the value of work.

What about the men who keep the trash picked up? What about the men and women who rolled into Tyler, TX recently by the fleet putting power lines back up and getting our city back on the grid? What about all the people who get up every day and work? They know their purpose. They don’t have time to sit around and bitch and piss and moan about much of the small ball issues that consume our passtime these days. They’re too busy working. They are creating. They are fixing. They are doing not just shouting and bitching.

I once heard the reason so much violence came out of the middle east was due to lack of opportunity for work. What’s America’s excuse? I see a bunch of young people who seem to say, “Meh. I don’t want to work. I’d rather riot, march, protest, be a gamer, pose for TikTok, anything but work. Work is for chumps.”

They are missing out on one of the truly blissful parts of life. It’s the joy of hard work and achievement that actually benefits the world.

For those of us who are parents I think it is incumbent upon us to tell the stories of our first jobs. A lot of the kids today don’t hold a first job until well after college graduation. This is a shame. Can you imagine if your first job was in an organization where the primary concern was your co-worker’s feelings and not doing good work? Well, that’s what a lot of youth are entering.

I was fortunate enough to have a parents who wouldn’t pay for my college. That’s right. I say fortunate. Had they I wouldn’t have driven a “bobtail” delivery truck delivering pipe supplies all over East Texas. I wouldn’t have worked in that 100 degree warehouse loading said truck. I wouldn’t have waited tables on the weekends and worked a third job on campus.

I wouldn’t have made damn sure I had a job waiting for me after I graduated because I wanted to do work that I found interesting. I wouldn’t have purchased my first company at the age of 28 and been able to survive those times when it took working 18 hour days just to keep the doors open. I learned the joys of hard work. It’s made me so much of what I am today. I’m thankful.

I remember when I paid off my first company early I called my Dad. I thanked him for making me work hard. I thanked him for not giving me everything I wanted. I was truly grateful. I know had I not been put in positions where survival required hard work I never would be able to do the things I now enjoy. I now get to work hard on work I value.

Much of the “work” I do these days comes with no compensation whatsoever. The payment is the accomplishment. It’s the satisfaction of having created something out of nothing. Let’s celebrate work. Let’s not keep shouting about all the work we shouldn’t have to do but instead be thankful for the work we get to do.

Work is good.