Tom Krieglstein tells how JFK asked a janitor at NASA what he was doing in 1962. The janitor didn't say he was sweeping floors. He said, "I'm helping send a man to the moon."
Chapters
There's this great story in 1962 about John F. Kennedy. He's walking through the NASA Space center to observe them launching a rocket to the moon, and he sees this janitor against the wall. So he says hello to him and asks him what he's up to and what he's doing. Now, the normal response you would expect back from that janitor would be, oh, I'm sweeping the floors. I gotta take care of the toilet. This pipe is leaking, something like that. But this janitor to the president says, well, Mr. President, I'm helping send a man to the mo. Ego.