Famous (and not so famous) Janitors

Janitors and cleaners everywhere are a unique breed. We'll often clean and make a property shine line new and we'll do so without accolades or fanfare. "Spotlighted janitor" is an oxymoron. It's a contradiction in terms. Cleaning isn't glamorous and we blend in and do our job well.

Popular culture has attempted to spotlight the profession. Groundskeeper Willie, Will Hunting, Joe Dirt, Stanley Spadowski, Janitor from Scrubs, Carl from Breakfast Club and more are great examples of this. They attempted to make the profession look somewhat cool, even if total fiction. 

But this post isn't about them. I'm targeting the janitor who went on a hero's journey starting as a janitor. I had a mentor who paraphrased an old saying with this: "The reward for men's and women's devotion to excellence is not what they get for it, but what he or she becomes through it." This saying suggests that the true value of striving for excellence isn't found in external rewards or recognition that one might receive as a result, but rather in the internal transformation and personal growth experienced through the process. It emphasizes the idea that the journey towards excellence—characterized by dedication, hard work, and a continual pursuit of improvement—shapes individuals in meaningful ways, developing their character, skills, and values. 

Below are some examples of those who went through this transformation, while defined as a cleaner or a janitor along their journey.

Jennifer Aniston

Before she hit the big time with Friends, Marley & Me, Bruce Almighty, and many more, Jennifer Aniston's very first job as a kid was as a cleaner. She's quoted in Parade Magazine in 2009 as saying, "I made my allowance as a kid cleaning toilets. I'm actually pretty good at it. I grew up with absolutely no money at all. I struggled for awhile, but I was happy with my life whether I was making this amount of money, or that amount of money. I always enjoyed where I was working.... But people used to say to me, 'You need to focus on having ambition.' And I guesssort of following that advice allowed a lot to come to me. There's just been a great ease with that evolvement in my life to being an actress. I didn't change that much, but my bank account changed." Photo Credit: IMDB.

Stephen King 

Did you know that Stephen King's early works, like The Stand, It, Firestarter, Cujo, and more because he drew inspiration as a high school janitor? According to an interview with the Guardian, Stephen King worked a summer cleaning locker rooms and that led to inspiration found in his first full book, Carrie. Remember the mom's quote, "They're all gonna laugh at you!". Stephen King laughed all the way to the bank. Photo credit: Getty Images. 

Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey's dad lost his job and that led to a homeless Carrey family. They lived in a packed van. To help the family, Jim got a job with his brother cleaning a tire warehouse at 8-hour shifts after high school. He got his start as a funny man trying to cheer up his mom who was battling illness and depression and eventually dropped out of high school to support the family. When not cleaning, his dad would drive him around to audition for stand-up gigs. While most of it bombed early on, he honed in his craft to be the comedian we know through shows like In Living Color, and in movies like Ace Ventura, Dumb & Dumber and The Truman Show. Photo credit: Rotten Tomatoes.

Sure, we know these people. But who do we NOT know? Who went through the challenges within the cleaning profession and later made pivots thanks to it?

Sean Conlon

Sean immigrated from Ireland in 1990 and landed in Chicago with only $500 to his name. He picked up a job as a janitor and continued working, while stashing cash. Within 3 years, he had enough to buy his first property and learned quickly that real estate was the way to go. He kept his full time job cleaning at night going early into the morning, where he switched hats and sold real estate. Lather, rinse and repeat. And then came a boom in real estate in Chicago and things bloomed. With his 5-figure deals that he had amassed, and with a solid work ethic, he was earning 10X on his properties and became one of the top real estate salesmen in the US, pulling in solid wealth at 9-figures in deals per year as a broker.

Gail Evans

Gail Evans swept floors and cleaned toilets as a janitor 35 years ago for Eastman Kodak. Her pay, adjusted for inflation today, was about $16.60/hour. Some of you keep Kodak in a lens of a failed film company. But what you may not know that with the rise of digital cameras, Kodak began shifting their focus on medical technology, print, chemicals, R&D, and more and still maintain over a billion in annual revenue. The technology guru leading the charge as the Chief Technology Officer? It's Gail Evans. She represents the classic rise up the corporate ladder over 35 years from janitor to CTO. 

Ronald Read

Ronald Read started his career as a gas station attendant and later bought out his employer with his brother and worked there for 25 years. He retired in 1979 and didn't feel content and promptly got a job as a janitor at a local JC Penney location and worked there for another 17 years until permanent retirement. He did what most don't do though....he remained frugal and saved and invested. He invested so much that when he passed away a decade ago, his local town learned about his unassuming story after he bequeathed most of his $8,000,000 estate to local charities, namely a hospital and a local library.