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Reflections on being administrator
Q: Do you have some final observations to make, reflecting on your whole career in the environmental field?
MR. RUCKELSHAUS: I've had an awful lot of jobs in my lifetime, and in moving from one to another, have had the opportunity to think about what makes them worthwhile. I've concluded there are four important criteria: interest, excitement, challenge, and fulfillment. I've never worked anywhere where I could find all four to quite the same extent as at EPA. I can find interest, challenge, and excitement as Chairman of the Board of Browning Ferris Industries. I do have an interesting job. But it is tough to find the same degree of fulfillment I found in the government. At EPA, you work for a cause that is beyond self-interest and larger than the goals people normally pursue. You're not there for the money, you're there for something beyond yourself. In fact, I've found you are doing well if you can find a job with two of the four criteria I mentioned. If you find all four, it's terrific.
Now, there are frustrations in EPA, too; enormous frustrations. Like anything else, you tend to remember the good things and forget the bad. But the agency is a terrific place doing a lot of important work. I have never thought of myself as an environmentalist, in the sense of being part of the environmental movement; rather, I was someone very interested in government who happened to have an assignment that dealt with controlling risk in society. I found it fascinating to administer EPA, in particular being present at the creation of an agency of that kind. It was really a rare opportunity, really remarkable. , It had more to do with my later appointment as Deputy Attorney General than anything else. It was a lot of fun.