Ina Garten

How old was the son?

When the mother is walking by with her son and she points to you and your fellow co-workers and says, don't be like them.

But you know what?

That became a motivating force for you, it sounds like.

But share for us how people, how invisible you were to other people as a sanitation worker.

Can we talk about that?

Yeah.

No regard, no regard for you as a human being, being a real person at all.

Not in the slightest.

Okay, so were you working to earn money for college or school, or was it going to be a permanent job?

How do you go from being a sanitation worker to Harvard?

Wow.

Oh, you say it like, until I got a 4.0, and then I did this, and then I did that.

I want people to read your story in Jenny's book, Mattering, but tell us about being at Harvard and the day you saw one of the custodians in the hallway, and tell us what happened in that moment.

That makes me want to cry.

Well, that sits with me, too.

You know why?

And I hope everybody listening, that's how you let somebody know they matter.

People who are the most unseen, the people holding the doors, the doormen, the sanitation workers, the custodians, the housekeepers in a hotel.

I always make sure I stop and say hello to those people, regardless of what's going on.