My hands are soft. I don’t use them. Except for typing. Writing. Eating and wiping.

I’ll never know how to build a house. I don’t know why the lights turn on. Or how the subway tunnels in New York were built.

I’m useless.

And I’ve never (really) worked.

This is proof that life is never over.

Because the list of things I can’t do is longer than the list of things I can do.

CAN’T’S:

• Install a toilet
• Install electricity
• Weld metal
• Get the water to run
• Figure out piping
• Build walls

All I have to do is Google “How to build a house” and the list of “can’ts” gets bigger.

It’s pathetic.

And I’m grateful…

Because it means millions of people are doing what I can’t. So I can do what I can.

I can build a website. I can write a book. I can go onstage.

I can do white-collar work.

I didn’t appreciate the blue-collar workers until “Dirty Jobs” showed me what I couldn’t see.

I remember seeing Mike Rowe scale bridges, go down into sewers, plow farms, milk cows, collect trash.

He did all the dirty jobs.

And filmed it.

He made the blue-collar worker a hero.

He treated the septic tank inspector, the welder, the skull cleaner “like Access Hollywood would treat Brad Pitt,” he said. “The authority went from me to my guest.”

Which was really meaningful to Mike.

Because his dad and grandfather were tradesmen.

“My grandfather was the kind of guy who could build a house without a blueprint. He went through the seventh grade. But he was brilliant. He began working early in his career. And by the time he was 30 he was a steamfitter, pipe fitter, electrician, a plumber, a mechanic, a welder…”

Mike wanted to do all of that.

“But I didn’t have the gene for it,” he said.

So he joined the opera.

And took a circuitous route to success.

Which is a skill people have forgotten. We’ve been brainwashed by guidance counselors, parents, peers, social media…

But there’s no straight path to success. All 500+ of my guests made their own route.

“I liken it to falling down the stairs,” Mike said. “You make progress, but you get knocked down a little bit. And that’s OK. Personally, I realized when I was 17 that I was not going to do any of the things I thought I was going to do. I wasn’t going to be the guy I thought I was going to be.”

He wasn’t going to be his dad. Or grandfather.

He wasn’t going to have their skills. Their hands. Or their route.

He was going to make his own.

• 3:24 | I introduce Mike Rowe. And dig into his career. I wanted to know how he helped shape the transparency of TV.
• 5:48 | The difference between authentic and deceptive content.
• 10:32 | Everyone thinks a career moves in a straight line. But that’s a lie. I asked Mike how he took the backdoor into Hollywood 
• 18:05 | The importance of experimentation.
• 21:44 | “We’re all the hero of our own story, whether we know it or not.”–Mike Rowe
• 24:54 | There used to be a lot of pressure to sound smart. And be right. But now people want honesty. And authenticity. Mike describes how this led to the success of “Dirty Jobs.”
• 29:21 | How to be different: Mike and I talk about the brilliance behind the marketing of “Dirty Jobs.”
• 34:40 | The new way to connect with your audience.
• 37:33 | Mike tells the story of climbing a bridge with no safety net… 680 feet up in the air.
• 41:51 | “We’ve lost our wonder today,” Mike said. “Our priorities have shifted.” Mike breaks down the consequences of fearing risk.
• 43:25 | Have we lost our desire to be self-reliant?
• 46:49 | There’s a correlation between impatience and appreciation. And connection. Mike and I discuss the impact of being more and more disconnected from one another.
• 47:45 | “If you work too hard to please [others], they will hate you,” Mike said. That’s why you must have the willingness to amuse yourself.
• 54:01 | Mike says “Dirty Jobs was the hit Discovery didn’t want.” Hear why…
• 56:16 | We talk about Mike’s writing style in his new book, “The Way I Heard It.”
• 1:02:03 | Why “be yourself” is the worst advice.
• 1:05:23 | Proof that ideas are infinite.
• 1:09:30 | How Mike’s dying grandfather inspired him to do “Dirty Jobs.”
• 1:10:35 | Mike lost his life savings in his 40s. I wanted to know what that felt like… and how that led to his reinvention.
• 1:18:50 | Do work that makes people want to thank you.
• 1:19:12 | The insanity of college.
• 1:30:05 | How to get a real education. And what I loved about Mike’s book “The Way I Heard It.” 

Listen here.

James Altucher is the author of the bestselling book Choose Yourself, editor at The Altucher Report and host of the popular podcast, The James Altucher Show, which takes you beyond business and entrepreneurship by exploring what it means to be human and achieve well-being in a world that is increasingly complicated. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

Image courtesy of Malcolm Lightbody.