Fred Astaire may have developed his work ethic in vaudeville where he started. There, you either stood out, or you and your family starved, literally.
We looked at renting the Storz mansion in Omaha for our wedding back in 1990. The Storz grandson (they were brewers) took us up to the ballroom and said Fred Astaire and his sister used to practice up there when he was getting started. He was from Omaha originally.