Changing the Negative Stereotypes Around Skilled Work and Learning a Trade Starts With EVERYONE, Including YOU

There is a wall in my kitchen that I want taken down so, of course, like any other eager do it yourself-er, I watched a few episodes of Fixer Upper and was convinced I could easily demo it all by myself – like between lunch and dinner. But just in case I was wrong (and my construction skills were a bit over inflated), I asked my neighbor, a retired general contractor, to give me the low down on wall demo.

He looked at the wall for a few minutes, then looked at me and said, “You were going to...