America’s 1973 hit song “Tin Man” just as easily could have been named “Scarecrow” — because Oz never did give nothing to the scarecrow — either — that he didn’t, didn’t already have.
Playing the scarecrow in the 1939 classic flick “The Wizard of Oz,” Ray Bolger sang the straw man’s mantra: “If I Only Had a Brain.” Truth be told, the scarecrow had street smarts like no other, despite being diploma challenged. In fact, it was the scarecrow who pointed Dorothy in the correct direction when she came to a fork in the yellow brick road. Without the straw man’s street smarts, Dorothy never would have met the tin man, cowardly lion or Oz, nor found her way home.
Education is essential, but the scarecrow reminds us that colleges haven’t cornered that market. Experience also can be quite the educator, especially when it’s tethered to hard work and common sense. Just ask Joe Lamacchia, a high school grad who over the past 28 years has built a successful $2 million-a-year landscape company.
The president of Newton, MA-based Lamacchia Landscape Construction Corp. has been making headlines across the nation, including being featured on the front of USA Today‘s Life section on June 23, for his recently published book, “Blue Collar & Proud of It — The All-in-One Resource for Finding Freedom, Financial Success and Security Outside the Cubicle” (available at www.amazon.com and www.bluecollarandproudofit.com).
Lamacchia’s message is simple: Spending tens of thousands of dollars on college can pay enormous dividends, but it’s a luxury not all can — or need to — afford. Fortunately, many of life’s lessons, including basic business tenets, can be learned in the field from mentors and trial-and-error. Equally important, blue-collar jobs serve as the backbone of America and most can be mastered better with on-the-job training and hands-on experience rather than with textbooks.
That’s why Landscape Management is partnering with Lamacchia, the Green Industry’s Average Joe. We’re launching a new standalone enewsletter, LM podcast: From Joe to Pro, in which Lamacchia shares his success tips and the keys to turning common contractor obstacles into opportunities.
Visit www.landscapemanagement.com/joetopro1 for a sneak listen to our inaugural From Joe to Pro podcast.
Lamacchia, like the scarecrow, knows life’s many paths. He maintains there are numerous avenues to education, success and true happiness — and the lives of my father and godfather confirm that belief.
Dad was gifted in gray matter. He was valedictorian of his high school, graduated with high honors from Georgetown University’s School of Medicine, and was a member of Mensa International — a high-IQ society. My godfather, Uncle Tim, on the other hand, left school in the sixth grade so he could pitch in on the family farm in Galway, Ireland. Years later, he crossed “the big pond,” met and fell in love with Dad’s sister, and took a job for life as a truck driver — a position that enabled him to raise a family and live comfortably and happily until God called him home in 1987.
I was exposed to the best of both collars: My white-collar dad taught me the value of a traditional education, while my blue-collar uncle showed me the utility of street smarts. Whether you’re hiring blue or white collars, our new Uncle Joe can teach you and them what it takes to be a pro. He has a take that America — both the group and the country — can sing about.
