A lifetime of early rising. Three years, out of high school, I worked for a small resort village DPW. Summers I was detailed to the municipal golf course, working with a summer crew. Up at 0430 to start work at the crack of dawn.
Winters, I was used for general labor and snowplow driving. I could get called on a Saturday evening, sent out on the Chevy C-60 dump-with-plow, to push snow until the roads were clear and/or it stopped snowing.
Then, the Navy. No sleeping in, unless you went to Sick Call and got a rack pass.
Years later, cabdriving. Up at three to get the airport rush. If you made your cab lease rate on the morning rush, the rest of the day was gravy. If you didn't catch it, or there was no rush, you might have a few bucks after paying the daily lease.
Of course, railroading was worse. NO time. But you just KNEW when the call came, you would be tired, and it would be a 16-hour day. Twelve hours, under Hours of Service; plus a two-hour call time; plus, after you go dead from HOS, an hour to get the company shuttle to get you off and to the hotel or the terminal.
Unlike most jobs, today, railroading is worse, not better. The money they make, for basically unskilled labor, is incredible. So are the demands - lifestyle and on the body. If you've got a lazy slug of an offspring, and want him to find out the Real World, send him to the major railroads' websites. They're hiring...