Did you have a job when you were younger? Of course you did – we all pretty much had to! How else were you going to fill your gas tank, be able to take your date to the movies, or hang out with our friends? (Unless you were one of those kids with the rich parents ….)

What do you remember the most about working as a teen? The crappy hours? The repulsive tasks that no one else wanted to do? The impossible and un-pleaseable customers? Working ALL week long to make a few hundred dollars?

One of my first jobs ever was working in a restaurant. I started off as a bus-boy running lighting speed from table to table, clearing and cleaning it so that the customers could get seated faster. After a few years I worked my way up to take-out and eventually became a full server.

Some people may look back on their first job and lament it as slave labor. But in the four years that I worked for this restaurant, there were things I was picking up on and learning that college would have never prepared me for. It was a training ground for developing traits that would later prepare me for things to come throughout my professional career.

To illustrate my argument, I present to you my list of lessons that I learned from my early days of employment that I still carry with me today:

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