We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Suzana Silvestre a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Suzana with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
One can say that my work ethic is in my DNA. My parents were Portuguese immigrants and didn’t speak English. They always worked. When I was seven we left the central valley where my dad worked on the dairies and my mom cleaned houses. My dad wanted a better life and got an opportunity to work in auto shop in the San Francisco Bay Area. My mom continued to clean houses and they took up janitorial work in the evenings. At home my mom kept a very clean house and cooked meals from scratch as my dad demanded his traditional Portuguese dishes.
I was along for the ride. As a small child my mom would take me to the houses with her that she was cleaning as we took care of our own; no child care. My parents always distrusted the world around them. The four of us were always together.
Through the years my brother and I would join them in their janitorial work after school. I hated it but I could never get out of it. Now as my kids are teenagers, I see myself in them when asking them for help cleaning. I know I am instilling in them what my parents did in me. Hard work.
My parents taught me; if you wanted a roof over your head you had to work to keep it. Food in the fridge, gas in the car, clothes on our backs – we had to work. We did not take vacations; we did not spend money on fancy things but we had everything we needed. Food was a huge deal in my house; always outside cooking, always dinner, always family friends over spending the weekend with us.
My mom would make large trays of meat that would last the weekend for everyone to eat, eat, eat. She always had salads, jellos, cakes, beers, wine. We had great times.
We had to work for all of that. My parents always showed up for work. Never called in sick, never made excuses and always looked for more work. If my mom were to lose a house I remember her being so down and worried because that loss of that $50 was going to hurt our family. Just as I worry when my weekends are not booked yet with events, or if I lose a bid on a proposal or if we have a slow sales week.
But we are Silvestre’s. We are Portuguese. We are immigrants. We work so that we can live. It is not about the amount of money, it is so that we have money, that our hard work goes towards things that we enjoy and need.
My work ethic comes from my parents and their parents who were farmers. They farmed so they could eat and they could live. My kids will have the same work ethic.
My own elongated philosophy on work is that we are all connected. If I am hired on by a company, they are giving me money to do a job for them. I show up and do the best job possible. I don’t want to fail. I want to learn. I want to feel like I earned my money so that when I sit in my back yard that I paid for I know I earned that glass of wine that I am enjoying. I want my boss to make more money. I want our micro economy and the society I am in to prosper. If they prosper I can continue to enjoy my glass of wine and perhaps enjoy it with a neighbor because I want them to have the same things I have.
Salud