Before he was David Mamet the acclaimed author, filmmaker, and Pulitzer prize-winning playwright, he worked a variety of low-paying jobs well into his 20s: from kitchen help at a summer camp to a maintenance worker in a truck factory to working in the Merchant Marine doing maintenance on boats. Mamet said he knows what it’s like to get your hands dirty to make ends meet.

“I also worked in a day camp teaching. Even right after I got out of college, I was unemployable, didn’t have any skills, and the degree wasn’t worth anything,” Mamet said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.