"You watch and you learn and you make life your classroom. “By observing, you can learn a lot of things. You can learn how to be an electrician, a gasoline attendant, a parking attendant …,” he says. “For the hard stuff, like plumbing and doctors and lawyers and all that high career, you have to go to school. But if you observe, you can teach yourself a lot."

COLUMN ONE: Elevator operator’s overriding story: joy - latimes.com