Career / Life Advise Tread

Like a lot of the better threades it is growing into something bigger and is a good forum for stuff like this.

 

Have related this before, happye to share againe. Did 5 yrs on The Street in NYC & Malibu. Commodities trader, lived the life, private jet travel, expensive cars, the caliente chicas & all that 'luxe' crap. Made a lot of money, spent every bit of it too. About as shallow an existence as you can imagine. Got pretty crispy cause the pressure to make more & more money for people with yuge amounts of money was relentless 24/7.

Finally had enough. Bailed, threw everything that I owned in my car, headed souf from NYC, figured I'd just try something different in a different city. Had a few hundred bucks to my name. Put ads in the old Yellow Pages, enjoyed working with my hands. My briefcase was a toolbox. It was a blast rolling around DC doing all sorts of work at all hours of the day & night for anyone from drug dealers who would pay me in Benjamins from a wad that could choke a horse to drunk Congressmen who had their bimbos on their tax-funded payroll.

Soon enough couldn't handle all the work flowing in. Hired employees, made every HR mistake known & then some, kept plowing the money back into the biz, bought commercial & res real estate, ended up with 20+ service rigs, 45 or so employees & now I just sort of don't do a whole lot. I have superb Managers who I trained up from the ranks & have been with me many years & who I'm now transitioning the biz to. I can go away for weeks & things don't go off the rails - - I wonder if they even know that I'm not around lol

If you had told me this was the path, years ago, I never would have believed you. I would have made much more money if I stayed a trader, but I couldn't stand the face in the mirror doing that shiiiite. Working with my hands in what some would consider a trade was a lot of fun & rarely a dull moment due to the clientele. And it was good enough money.

Point being, don't settle, don't stay in a rut, try it, try something til you find what you enjoy. The money is your last priority, not the first priority, and it will flow.

 

If you don’t mind me asking, what happened between making choke doe and bailing in your car? String of bad trades, industry curve ball??? Just curious if there was a specific episode that caused you to say enough....

Big money can definitely push you into a life that you don’t even enjoy. I do okay for myself but have people around me who do better than average and doing better financially is all they think about. Most people around me don’t even know my lifestyle or what I’m about. Yank, you made this best point...don’t make money your priority. My daily goal is to not stress out and have a purpose each day (personally and career wise). I pursue the Benjamins too but I don’t let it consume me.

dP, careful with the “management” gig, sounds good but may not be what you are looking for. If you can retain independence and promote your lifestyle, that decision may be worthy of a hard look.

 

When I was younger I wasn't capable of doing things half-speed. It's the engine that made me good at various things, but it was also what took me off the rails. Yin & yang. I never had balance in life, I don't even know what that's like. That fire is what helped make me a good trader, and that fire is what helped burn me out at trading.

It wasn't one particular thing. Cumulative effect. The 24/7 trading, cause going anything less than full-on didn't get me the needed-results. Being around money-driven asshats, so many, many asshats. Money as a driver truly brings out the worst in folks, and Wall Street is loaded with them, no surprise. I just got really, really sick & tired of all the phonies, the people cosying up cause of their greed & their desire to get or partake in what I had.

You know the best way to relieve yourself of what you think you want? Try them out. Want a Ferrari? Drive one. That's it, you may not actually want to own one now. Want to marry a gorgeous actress, model, performer? Try her out. You may not like the person she is. Want that $20k shotgun? Shoot it. You might be real happy with your Remington. And so on.

In other words, flying private, money, money, money, lost its appeal. May sound odd but I was really bored as well as burnt out.

As a teenager my mantra, based on what I'd already seen from people, was simple:
never get fat
never get married
never go into debt
All I ever wanted out of Life was two things: fun & never let money rule me.

It's the times that I got away from those parameters that I got beaten up by Life.

 

People make assumptions & judgments based on $$$$$$.

I walk around my company in a polo shirt, khakis & a Carhartt sweatshirt. I drive a paid-for 11 year old rig. My house is paid for (no debt!). I could be surfing more, but that will be soon. Life is good. No one knows anything about my net worth - - and that's the way it's best kept.

 

Interesting experiences Yank. Thanks for sharing.

 

If you could put me in touch that's be awesome.

Thing is, i run 98% of the companies service. I am the service. And this is a company that should have 3 guys on service (reason why it's just me is laziness from bosses son. Hence the move). And i get it done. So im all good with it being crazy. It's no different from now. And as far as starting up, i really don't need that much money. I have all the tools and equipment. All i need is a van and to stock it with parts and refrigerant.

Big thing that I'm hung up on is the logistics. So obviously restaurants are big customers in the HVAC/R trade. There busy on weekends. Now i do on call now. No problem with that. But i can't be on call 24/7. You know? So hows that work. Obviously i can have guys in the trade cover for me if it's a emergency.

Second thing is how much is too much/little. I got this 6th sense when it comes to the equipment i work on. I haul ass. 8 calls done in a day is no problem. After my rough calculations I'd be good with 3 or 4 calls a day money wise. Again, rough calculations and i didn't factor in installs. Point being i know what i can handle work and money wise. No idea what that means as far as amount of customers go. It's tricky.

I know a few guys who would be down. Iv talked to a few about it. Problem is they either lack knowledge or work ethic.

 

Like I said it’s a time and patient planning tactic. The more you look at it the more it will become clear and the more avenues of possibility will be found. Your doing it. And your thoughtful enough to take a step back and look at all sides.
I will most certainly talk with Scott. I’m telling you, salt of the earth. And the irony is? I’m about ready to jump out on my own too so I’m in the same mode as DP and you - and I’m doing the same thing because I don’t do things half cocked. Too type A. I’m tired of being a good little squirrel on that wheel making people a lot of money and still fighting for crumbs when it’s 95% all me, every time. I’m just alittle older and more bitter than you hahaha

 

I'm 63 and down to less than two months until retirement.
Total 38 1/2 years working for the Navy: 4 years active duty in aviation, the remainder civil service. I was going for 40, but last year decided enough was enough. I won't miss it. Wife's been counting the days more than I and has a post-retirement honey-do list waiting for me.
Three of our four kids have left the nest. Special needs daughter will remain with us. Youngest son will be completing Army Basic Training at Ft Jackson, SC next week before beginning Blackhawk helo mechanic training.

 

Stoked for you! Thank you (and your boy) for the service!

Now, where’s the retirement party? I’ll bring the keg!

 

AMEN TO THAT! My boss runs the installs. 3 man crew. His son "runs service". Well his son sits at the office, and this isn't a joke, watching cat videos/porn/playing video games. So i take on all the service. Which im honestly ok with since id rather be working then twiddling my thumbs. If he does help out and take a call.... well he half asses it to get in and out as fast as possible, and i end up having to go back. Boss man thinks he's out working. So i don't get paid bad, but considering im running the service solo (which opens the door for the money install jobs) i don't get paid what i should. While his son gets paid good to do nothing. So yeah, I'm tired of doing 95% work and fighting for crumbs. This is what started this whole idea. Im doing it solo now, might as well make me the money instead of someone else, right?

 

Just know the difference between working ON your business as opposed to working IN your business. The former gets you paid, the latter gets you nowhere.

 

We charge flat rate fees for winterizing services on boats. We service over 275 boats every fall and the average time of service for each boat is 5hrs.
Add in shrink wrapping and minor repairs to that mix. The place had three mechanics when I started and now it’s been me alone for 2.5 yrs. I’m very capable. I usually do 15-20hrs a day for the three months, Billables, in an 8hr day. After the for sale sign went up out front, they asked me to stay on until it sells because if it goes under, they will end up in bankruptcy and loose any investment they have. I say yes I will. I then start taking a few hours a day out of those flat rate hours that I’ve been leaving on the table, to put money away against the impending end. Absentee owner decides to start getting greedy and makes an issue out of it. Rule from day 1 has been every hour I work has to be billable or they won’t pay it...but feels I’m not entitled to any of the extra that’s there when I consistantly beat the rate fee by 50% or more. We’re talking $750-$1200 on average. A day. 5-6 days a week. For three months.
I’m on track as of today to have done $400,000 worth of service total for this year.
I make 70k a year before taxes.
I get no benefits.
I use my POV for travel jobs.

And every bit of that sob story is my own fault. At 48 and being well traveled and well experienced in the world of service industries, I’m supposed to have learned by now - so hence the post and advice ... I’m here now because I talked myself out of taking a chance, every single time one came.
This isn’t the first dance like this for me. I’ve made a career out of being a stellar overachiever/sucker donkey chasing a golden carrot of promises.
A promise is just comfort for a fool.
Don’t know if any of that helps you in any way, but I hope something sticks.

 

When I had my own thing it was just me. It was a one man operation. Now, when I had big jobs or needed an extra hand, I would ask my friend (who also did his own thing) and sometimes early on in the years leading up to me having my own thing, he'd use me for his business when things got busy. Every once in a while I'd pay a couple of my best friends to help me out, too, but they were never in the business, so they could only be of so much help.

I did service and installs. The REAL money in that field was in the installs. I wound up getting a couple big jobs, like new doors at one of the local DPW's and a couple firehouses. Boardwalk stands, a few outlets in malls. And I had about 3-4, maybe 5 contractors that I was always doing installs for when they'd build a new house. I would have probably been making $200k by now if I kept this up, and probably would have had to hire at least one person full time. I was making around $100k in the early 10's, when the economy was not doing nearly as well and there wasn't as much construction/building going on. I make quite a bit less than that now, but I get 4+ months off a year and live a much more stress free life. I also think I put more wear and tear on my body doing that work. I'm in good shape, but I'm 47 now and I feel like I might have been falling apart by 60 if I still did that kind of work.

There were times where I had to be to 5 different places at once, so I'd try to just line things up where I would do one job after the other.

When I did work for myself, I spent a lot of time surfing, which was cool. I wasn't overloaded with work, sometimes I would only have 25 hours of work a week. I actually didn't wanna work more than 40 and that's why with how much work I was getting at the end, I know I'd need someone else to help me if I was still doing it this many years later. One thing I used to do when I wanted to surf, I'd sometimes do my installs crazy hours, like 10:00 PM-2:00 AM, maybe even 3:00 AM if I had to. These were on new construction homes that I was installing the garage doors on. I had the cops called on me quite a few times. Not because I was making noise, but because the neighbors saw what looked suspicious with someone working over there at these crazy hours and I couldn't blame them, because, like, who the hell works installing garage doors in the overnight hours, right? So the cops would come and tell me ''We got a complaint of a suspicious person here, lights on in the garage''. A couple of them knew me and my crazy hours at one point haha. They knew I wasn't of any trouble. I'd usually give them a BS line like ''I'm a one man operation here and I'm swamped in the daytime, so I gotta do some of these jobs at night! And the ones I gotta do at night are the ones where I don't need anybody home or on location at their business, so I gotta do these ones!''. Usually, I would do that so I could surf in the daytime! I was at my surfing peak in about 2010/early 2011, when I had the business!

So, how many hours a week are you doing with your HVAC thing for yourself? I was able to get by on 20-25 hours when I started doing it. You know what sucked the most? The paperwork, keeping of things to write off for tax purposes. That was too much for me, but I did it.

 

I give you "service industry" guys credit - it's tough work. I have friends who are in it (HVAC, house building, decks, hurricane windows) and they opted to work for others instead of themselves. I think all of them were ok with their decision but now we are old and their bodies are breaking down. If they started their own business they would be able to cut down service calls to tend to office/management tasks. No advice here (I am office jockey) but put this out as food for thought. Believe me - I realize running a business is tough also.

 

I enjoyed the years of toting my toolbox, running jobs, barreling around DC & getting things done. I also realized pretty early on that my body wouldn't hold up, in the extreme weather, in & out of a cargo work van all day every day, up & down stairs, knees taking a pounding in general, concerns about arthritis slowing me down in later years.

As a result, I distinctly recall saying that I wanted to run a business not run any more jobs. Could only make 'x' amount of money, too, running jobs. Revenue goes up exponentially when you have good Techs working for you. Profit, and stress lol, they go up too.

That was 18 yrs ago when I stopped wrenchin.' It was the right move.

 

And btw, never ever ever treat your service tech poorly or condescendingly or rudely. There are 8 ways from Sunday that we can, and will, make it up on you, sometimes exponentially, on the bottom line of your bill.

Biggest asshats in metro DC? Hands down, rich people in Georgetown. Nouveau riche.
The wealthy folks in Foxhall are cool, in general.

There's yuge differences between wealthy people & rich people.

Best folks to work for in DC? Working class folks, bus drivers & the like, in SE & NE DC.

Ok enough ramblin.'

Pump, did you surf AI today & if so how was it & hopefully you didn't have the 'bino to deal with.