I remember my first job ever at a local restaurant working as a busboy. There was a Bolivian immigrant named Emilio also working there. He was a middle-aged man with a wife and five children.

He worked at a construction site during the day and came to the restaurant at night to do various odd jobs. He looked exhausted every time I saw him. But he worked harder than anybody did and with great enthusiasm.

He could have been like the rest of us and done the bare minimum.

One day, I asked Emilio why he chose to work so hard every night…

He looked at me for a minute and thought about what I had just asked him. Then he laughed quietly and went back to work. Here was a man who was not paid very well. And I’m sure there were many times that his body ached and he felt like he couldn’t go on anymore. But Emilio would do almost anything and he did it all without complaint. He cleaned the bathrooms and crawled underneath the bar to clean out the sewage pipes when no one else would. He brought dignity to a job and a life that most overlooked.