Mopping floors at a restaurant shows you real fast who treats every person with respect and who doesn’t.

Work that other people consider beneath them turns into an accurate instrument for reading character. When you are the one holding the mop, you see who says thank you, who steps around you as though you were furniture, and who behaves differently depending on who is watching. That reading is hard to get any other way.

Keep what you learn about people, and keep what you learn about yourself. Notice how you speak to whoever is clearing your table or taking your order at the end of a long shift. The habit you build now is the one you will still have when you have some power.