Work defines us. It shapes our days, fills our hours, gives meaning to what we do and who we are.

For some, it’s a profession, a career, a calling. Others see a job as a necessity that allows them to do their most important work: raising a family, building a community, pitching in to help others.

His “office” is a small, white pickup with a mobile workshop in the bed, filled with tools for trimming horses’ hooves and shaping horseshoes.

For job security and because he has five grandchildren, he hopes the next president will bring about “a good, strong economy and a strong border,” he told The Epoch Times. “That’s more conducive to business.”

Without those things, “the people start to suffer and they start to cut the fat. They start to do away with things they don’t need, like horses.”

Hoffman, 59, hopes the upcoming election will put someone in the White House who is “for the people, and for our country. They’re Americans first, and they’re politicians second.”

“I can tell you straight up, there’s been many a day that my wife and I have ate less, so our kids can eat more. And I think all families go through that.”

Horses’ hooves continuously grow and need to be trimmed and balanced about every 4-6 weeks. Some need shoes that must be customized for each hoof. Some need corrective or therapeutic shoeing in order to move freely and without pain.

Hoffman went to farrier school out West to become certified in his craft. Then he apprenticed with pros near Ocala, Florida, said to be the horse capital of the world.

To make ends meet, he often works 12- to 16-hour days, sometimes six days a week. It’s the kind of bent-over work that makes a guy’s back, legs, and arms ache.

Between each horse, he rests a bit and takes a few sips of water he keeps in his truck.

“If you don’t like hard work, and working when it’s 105 degrees, or working when it’s pouring down rain and all your tools are getting wet, it’s just not a career somebody would want to pursue.”

So why do it?

It’s simple, he told The Epoch Times.

“I love horses, and I love people.

“Plus, my dad instilled in me a work ethic that, no matter what, you don’t give up.

“He used to tell me all the time, that there’s nothing more important in your life than your job … you always provide for your family. You feed your kids, you clothe your kids, and you take care of your kids and your wife.”

Hoffman has had “a lot of health issues and a lot of debilitating things”… “but I just don’t quit. There ain’t no quit in me.”

He works wearing therapeutic shoes and leg braces.

“I just don’t look at it like a disability. I just look at it like, this is the cross that I bear, and I’m gonna do everything I can to do everything that I do well.

And he doesn’t see his work as just providing foot care for horses.

“I’ve tried to use this as a ministry. Sometimes that has to deal with Christianity, and sometimes people just need to talk, to get things off their chest, like therapy.”

Since 2009, he’s owned and operated KD Plumbing & Construction, LLC., a business that has grown to employ 14 people in a warehouse near the airport. He figures the keys to his entrepreneurial success are his dedication to his family and his community and an education that extends beyond classrooms and lectures. His most skilled instructor, he says, was his father.

“My dad told me that if you learn how to do everything and you’re willing to do anything, you’ll always make a living. You make yourself valuable,” he told The Epoch Times.

Like most ranchers, tradesmen, and blue collar workers in this Southeast Oklahoma town, Burkett has amassed a variety of skills. He welds, fixes equipment, repairs plumbing, builds things, and operates all kinds of vehicles.

“There’s nothing that I’m scared to do.”

He played some baseball in college, then went to work at the Choctaw Casino & Resort-Durant. But realizing he “was not an inside guy,” he moved on to work with his father, who taught him valuable technical skills.

But more importantly, he said, his father taught him the value of work.

Eventually, he bought a truck, gathered his tools, and opened his own business. But it’s the work ethic, taught by his father, that has kept his company open and his family fed, he said.

“I like to work with my hands. I’ll get down in the hole like anyone else. If I have to keep my crew late, I’m right there with them.”

He likes knowing that others, far beyond his immediate family, depend on the jobs he provides. Few think about the workers who tend a city’s infrastructure ... until the water stops.

“If [tradesmen] quit for a week, the country would fall apart,” he said.

Burkett wants his children to feel the same pride and satisfaction in their work, regardless of the career they choose. He’s less concerned about the kind of work they do and more focused on the type of workers they become.

Nine years ago, Kevin Dougherty was a cybersecurity specialist with a company in Houston, Texas. Today, he prefers to wield a chainsaw from an elevated bucket mounted to a truck as part of a three-man tree-trimming crew in Bryan County, Oklahoma.

“I’m tired of working in an office,” said Dougherty, 39, foreman of Texoma Dirty Work Tree Service. “As much as I can, I like to get in the bucket.”

Along with co-workers DJ Henson and Billy Derryberry, he trims limbs away from roofs and electrical lines and removes trees that could fall on buildings or other property.

His coworker, Henson, left the loan department of a local bank about a year ago to trim trees. All three men in the crew agree: They find fulfillment and enjoyment in providing an essential service that protects their customers’ property.

“[Without us] trees would fall on houses,” Henson said.

Plus, running chainsaws and wood chippers pays better than shuffling papers and typing on computer keyboards, they said.

Henson spends about 55 hours a week raking tree debris and hauling away the limbs Dougherty drops to the ground from more than 20 feet above. Then he feeds them into a chipper.

“It’s harder work“ than at the bank, Henson said, ”but I make a lot more money.”

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Dougherty said most of his coworkers were raised in politically and socially conservative homes. Most still lean that way, he said, and they base political preferences largely on policies affecting their work.

When it comes to who will inhabit the White House next, he said, issues such as the Keystone pipeline make the best barometers of blue collar sympathies.

“When they shut that down, a lot of blue collar guys started reaching [out to be] Republican. They’re deciding on [voting for] whoever will keep them at work.”

He believes salaries for blue collar vocations are rising because fewer people are willing to do physically demanding work. And despite what some may think, education matters, even in blue collar work. The more skills you master, the more you can earn, he said.

“You can make six figures easy.”

But, some things matter more than money.

She’s fine with that.

In fact, it’s an opportunity. Not only will the single mother earn some side-hustle cash, but she'll also be able to market herself.

Rivera, of Lakeland, Florida, holds three jobs. She’s a licensed cosmetologist and a real estate agent, too. For her, each job blends into the others.

“I like networking. I like meeting new people, talking with people,” she told The Epoch Times.

Every diner, salon client, and prospective home buyer is a potential customer at one of her other businesses.

Those are Rivera’s jobs.

Her “work” is caring for her three children. At 7, her oldest, Malachi, is just starting second grade. Her middle child, Luca, is 4, and the youngest, Rosemar, is just 3 three months old.

It’s constant motion, a work in progress.

“It’s hard,” the Massachusetts native said. “I had to push myself. There were times I wanted to give up.”

If not for her mother—a fellow cosmetologist, who encouraged her to pursue that licensing—and a friend who watches her children, Rivera couldn’t support her family.

“It takes a village,” she said. “A lot of women don’t have a village.”

Still, it’s “nerve-wracking,” she said. She frets about earning at least $1,000 a week to afford her apartment, car, and food.

Child care? Forget it. That would cost $380 per child each week.

Government “help?” No, thanks.

The child tax credit “is nice,” she said. But it would be more helpful if she didn’t have to pay the taxes up front.

The costs to earn money in real estate pose another challenge. There are fees and training courses required to maintain her license,  and “advertising is expensive,” she said.

Summer is slow, making her income “constricted,” she said. That’s just Florida. But fall is near.

Rivera’s ready to soar during snowbird season, the time when northerners—potential customers—escape the cold by fleeing to Florida. Rather than commuting 90 minutes to a high-end salon, she’s now styling hair closer to home. And the opportunities in real estate are building, with many showings lined up.

She’s “always on call,” and there are no closings yet. But it’ll pan out, she believes.

He’s pastor of another congregation, of New Testament Christian Church, which uses the facility throughout the week. The arrangement means he and his congregants maintain the building and grounds they share.

When the church work is done, he'll head off to Georgia to get chickens for his family’s farming operation.

During the drive, he'll review the 105 questions he must answer correctly in three days when he takes his licensing exam to become an electrical contractor. He’s already done nearly $30,000 in work to rewire the shared church.

“This is God’s building—a place of healing,” he said. “It needed new lighting.” And the aging Methodist congregation “needed help.”

Help is what you do, said Archibald, 42, who’s always on the move.

“I don’t think this is ‘work.’ It’s my way of life.”

Working hard and pitching in is part of his family heritage.

Archibald is a Marine veteran and father of three. He and his two sisters were raised by immigrants from the British Virgin Islands. His father’s “hard-calloused hands” are the products of cutting sugar cane and picking oranges sold for $5 a crate.

“He never had a ‘job,’ but he never worked for anyone but himself,” Archibald said.

He went a different way. At first.

After playing football as a defensive back at Lakeland High School, he was in Marine boot camp six days after graduating.

While stationed in Washington state, he joined New Testament Christian Church. He met his wife, Meron, in seminary. They posted to Lakeland, leading fellowships, Bible studies, VA hospital outreach, and Sunday services.

With his electrical contractor license, he plans to open his own shop and call it Always Faithful. That’s a translation of and nod to “Semper Fi,” the shortened Latin phrase that serves as the motto for the U.S. Marine Corps.

“I want a bigger outreach,” Archibald said. But the required permits and stringent regulations make it difficult to legally sell what they grow and raise on the family farm.

So they give away a lot of the eggs, goat meat, chickens, passion fruit, and okra.

“Food has tripled in cost. [People] work extra jobs just to provide.”

When he spoke to The Epoch Times, it was a little after 9 a.m., and he'd already put in half a day’s work. He was ticking down the last few minutes till his lunch break.

“I like interacting with customers,“ said Grant, 51. ”You get all the different types. People from all over come through the nation’s capital.”

His work week often stretches into 60–65 hours. But there’s overtime, and not a lot of stress, he said.

“You might get a lot of people with disabilities [coming through, and] they might need assistance.”

And sometimes people fall ill on the trains and need his help. But coworkers pitch in as problems arise, he said.

When Grant’s family emigrated from Jamaica in the 1980s, he hadn’t envisioned a career in public service. But then he operated trains for 15 years and a bus for seven. Now, he runs stations.

“Pretty much this has been my main career,” he said.

After 27 years of long work weeks, he’s less than a year from retirement.

What then?

“Nothing,” he chuckled.

But staying independent in an era of Big Medicine is getting increasingly more difficult, he told The Epoch Times. And in an age of ever-swelling corporatization, putting patients first is one of the most significant challenges doctors face today, he said.

After more than 30 years as a doctor, he’s watched patient care across the industry become less personalized. Alarmed by that, he wrote “Open Your Eyes: A Prescription for Change in American Healthcare.”

He laments that giant corporations are buying up primary care practices. Managers often pressure doctors to spend less time with each patient. Instead of maintaining the traditional role of giving quality care and establishing a relationship with each patient, he believes the new medical model “is all about profit.”

“That’s not really why most physicians went into health care,” said Balbona, 61.

He once worked for a big hospital group, which freed him from many administrative tasks. But then, he was told to see twice as many patients each day. That wasn’t acceptable, he said. So he left.

Politics and profit-chasing corrupt the practice of medicine, he said. Insurance companies keen on cutting costs can keep doctors from making decisions based on their knowledge of their patients.

He fumes about how government policymakers interfered with how doctors treated their patients during the COVID-19 epidemic. That, he said, was an assault on medical freedom. That’s a freedom he’s not willing to relinquish.

As a doctor, he staunchly defends one mission: “I just try to make people healthier and live better.”