🚨 Why These Young People Chose the Trades Over College

I can't imagine there's too many parents out there that haven't asked themselves, does my child need a four -year degree? Welcome back to another episode of The Tradepreneur Show. Listen, today we've got some special guests with us and also a topic. And I'm sure can resonate with a lot of people out there. How many students in class today just sitting in class asking, do I need to go to college? Do I want to go to college?

If I don't go to college, what opportunities exist for me? Are the trades an opportunity? And I'm here to tell you, you better believe they are. In fact, our guests here, I've got three young gentlemen that. chose to enter the trades. Actually, two chose to enter the trades and forego college. One actually went to college and entered the trades. So, Ryan, welcome. Thank you. Frankie, welcome to the show.

It's good to be here. Have you ever been on an episode? No, it's my first time. Man, listen to that. Check this out. Write this down in your journal today. And Patrick, I've got to say that there's no coincidence that My name is Patrick and his name is Patrick because in addition to being a member of the team, he is also my son. And so it makes me very proud that he chose to enter the trades. So, gentlemen, you were actually working today.

You actually took time to come in out of the field and be on the show. I was saying to some people that, I don't know about you two, but my son probably might be mad because he seems to be frustrated when... He gets pulled away from work. But with that said, I really appreciate you guys being here. I've got a couple questions for you. I want to know what led you to the trades, right? I mean, even though you're my son and you're actually Francisco, my business partner's son, you went to college, right?

And you guys both could have gone to college, easily have gone to college. In fact, I spent a lot of money in a college prep school thinking. give him the best shot to go to college, and he chose not to go to college, which is fine with me. Was there a point where you wanted to go to college, or was college never a consideration? So for me, college was kind of always in the back of my mind a little bit, but it was never something that I really was like, oh, yeah, I really want to go to college. But I honestly didn't really know what I was going to do out of high school.

I knew Patrick was doing this. We kind of got back together. Came in for an interview, and now I'm here, and I love it. And Patrick, how about you? Yeah, so I've always loved the idea of being in the trades, and it's all I've ever wanted to do when I was younger. College did seem like it could be an idea when I was younger, and as I got older, it just kind of seemed to be less and less important for me.

I've always been into the idea of problem -solving in the trades and just working with my hands. I always thought that was all I ever wanted to do. It's kind of just a no -brainer for me. Frankie, you went to college. I remember when you were much younger and you wanted to be a veterinarian of all things, right? I do. And you were even in La Quinta High School going through kind of a medical program, correct?

You went to college, but you didn't go for veterinary medicine. Tell us about the journey like going to college. To you, was it an expectation that you were going to go to college? I'm a first generation to go to college for my parents. It was never... A question of if I'm going to college, it's more like, what are you going to do while you're in college? What are you going to study? What do you want to become?

It wasn't a non -negotiable, I would say. But while in college, I got that sense of maybe this isn't for me. But once you start something, you can't quit. I was told that by my parents. I was told that by my partner. They said, you are two years into this. There is no quitting. There's no going back. You need to finish this degree, even if you never use it for the rest of your life. And I said. Tough it out.

Tough it out. So you got out of college, right? Now you were working here through college, right? The summer times you'd work here in the warehouse. And you got out of college and you came and worked in the warehouse, right? At what point was it, I want to go, I want to be a tech. I want to go in the field. You know, I was working here and at the same time I was looking for a finance job because I got my degree in business finance.

The more I interviewed, the more I talked to people. I sat down with bankers. I sat down with investment people, and I said, maybe this isn't for me anymore. And those same people said, what does your dad do? And I said, well, my dad, you know, he has an HVAC company, and, you know, he's done it for what seems like his whole life. And they said, well, why are you trying to leave if he has something that, you know, he's building up?

Why wouldn't you help him build it yourself? And I said, you know, it's always been something I never even considered as a plan for me. And they said, look. instead of working for somebody else, work for your dad, who's going to want what's best for you. And I started talking to my dad more and more, and he said, it'd be a dream for you to, you know, want to stay here and help you grow and become whatever you want to become, whatever. If that's an installer, a technician, you know, just give me the opportunity to teach you.

And I just ran with it ever since, and he's been guiding me through this process. It's been a journey. Cool. Cool. All right. So, Patrick. You came to me, I remember your senior year. You said, Dad, I'm not going to college. I'm going to come work for you. I want to learn the trades, he said. But he also said something that actually made me very happy. He said, but I'm not staying with you forever.

He said, I'm going to stay enough to learn what I need to learn, and then I'm going to go do my own thing. And, like, I don't know if I ever shared this with you, but it made me so proud. Because I was like, I remember I went to my dad once. My dad has passed away when I was a kid. And I said to him once, I said, Dad, I want to be just like you. And he said to me, don't be just like me. Be better than me.

Right. And so that was my version of my son doing that to me. Right? Because I'm like, he wants to go do his own thing. And then I was kind of sad afterwards because I was like, I really enjoy being able to see him at work every day. We kind of get up in the morning and see who gets out the house first to get here first. Now, Ryan, you basically didn't want to go to college. You made up your mind, but you didn't really know what to do.

But then, as you're explaining, talking with Patrick, but you guys went to school since like kindergarten or something, right? In fact, your mother was one of his teachers in, what, fourth grade? Kindergarten. Oh, yeah, kindergarten. Yeah, okay, kindergarten. Yeah, she was a kindergarten teacher. We used to have to go in for conferences and sit in these little tiny chairs. So what was it that – was it just a job or was there something that appealed to you in talking with Patrick about the opportunity at General?

Well, I didn't just want a job. I wanted a career. I wanted something that, like, I could – kind of what Patrick was saying, kind of learn and then go do your own thing, which is kind of, that's the goal. I want to get everything I can from here and then go start my own business and do it. That's what I want to do. Nice. You're in plumbing, Ryan. Patrick, you're in plumbing. And Frankie, you're in the HVAC. track, right?

Frankie's amazing advantages. He has a behind the scenes experience working in the warehouse and knowing the frustrations from the warehouse side, but learning the parts, learning a lot of the process and procedure. My son, Patrick, he would come here in high school and work in install through the summertime in HVAC. And you actually, both you and Frankie went to the Lennox school in Dallas, but he got out of school. Funny story.

He gets out of school. And he's graduated and he starts, it's the summertime, he starts coming to the office. And they were treating him like he was still in high school and it was a summer job. Not that this was his career move, right? And so one day he's standing around, everybody's left. He was waiting on the install manager. And a plumber happened to come up to him and say, what are you doing here?

What are you doing today? He's like, I'm waiting to figure out where I'm going. And the plumber, correct me if this is inaccurate, but said, well, come with me. And he came home that day, and he's like, Dad, I want to go into plumbing. I said, you do? Why? And he told me the story. And so what was it about plumbing that made you, even when you had three years prior summertime HVAC, but after one day, you said, I want to go into the plumbing department.

Yeah, so after doing HVAC for four years in the summertime, I loved it. It was a lot of fun. It was hard work. But compared to plumbing, plumbing had way more opportunity. I feel like just things around the house, you know, HVAC is just heating, cooling, ventilation. Plumbing is, you know, hot water, drainage. I just thought there was way more opportunity in plumbing. I get pretty bored pretty easily.

So plumbing, there's just so much going on, it's kind of hard to get bored. And then, Ryan, you kind of did the same thing. We had you in electrical. And HVAC, we're kind of moving you around, right? And then you landed on plumbing. What was it? I don't really know. It kind of sounds funny, but it's like when I'm doing plumbing, it's almost like I'm playing with Legos. I mean, it's a little more complicated than that, but it's the fact that you get to build things, you look at it, it's almost like a puzzle.

It's cool to figure it out like that. Cool. And then Frankie, HVAC, while it's in your blood. Right. Was HVAC, you only wanted HVAC or did you, was there a time you're thinking, should I go electrical plumbing or was it, were you pretty much made up? I spent seven and a half, almost eight years in the warehouse working with a lot of HVAC personnel, installers, technicians, people in service. I think HVAC has a little bit of everything.

We deal with high voltage, low voltage. You know, we're dealing with condensation, drainage, and we have ventilation. heating, cooling, refrigeration. I believe HVAC just blew my mind the more and more I got into it. And the more and more I found out, I don't know what I'm doing. If you don't really do your homework and you really study this, people think, you know, it's creating air. We're not creating air.

We're moving air. We're conditioning air. I mean, it just drew my attention. And, of course, I had a big play by my father. I mean, he's been in HVAC longer than I've been alive. And your dad came up doing everything. From warehouse to delivering refrigerant to guys that needed it, to install new homes, custom homes, and then residential, commercial, and then into sales. And now he's like a sales guru, right?

I tell Francisca, I said, you're not a salesperson, you're a closer. And there's a big difference. Every closer is a salesperson, but not every salesperson is a closer. There's a huge difference. So, yeah, I... You know, I'm on the HVAC side. You know, ironically, when I was in high school, when I would get suspended or there was a snow day or something like that, I would go work for my buddy, F .J.

Hessenson. F .J. Hessenson, Frank Hess, started a business, and I'd go. He started it in a little Volkswagen pickup. It's not even a truck. It's like a car. So I had done plumbing. I was a gopher. I dug ditches and stuff. And, of course, I went a different direction and got back into the trades later. But other than that, I got in on the HVAC side. And I always tell guys that come into HVAC, I said, what do you think of math and science?

And a lot of times they're like, ah, not good at math, don't like math. Science, some science, okay, but not really. I said, well, you know you picked the trade that is the heaviest in math and science. They're like, what? I said, you're using it every day. you know, physics and all kinds of stuff. So to your point, you're doing the electrical. So you've got to know Ohm's law and things like that. So it's very interesting.

But the plumbing side, here's one thing. I just got back from a trip to Europe, started in Switzerland, ended up in Amsterdam and everywhere in between. And if you've been watching the news, you know, they've had a tremendous heat wave. And there's also not a lot of air conditioning over there. And there's very practical reasons as to why. And it makes sense until it gets into triple digits, right?

But I thought while I was there, you know, when you're in the trades and you go places, you look at things differently. You're looking at the buildings. I'm taking pictures of vacuum trucks working on the sewer system and whatnot. But I was like, man, you started an air conditioning business over here. You wouldn't have much work. There's not much work. I mean, because there's not much air conditioning.

And I thought. But everybody's got a toilet. Everybody's got running water. So I thought, wow, if I was over here, I'd probably have to be in plumbing because the HVAC is far and few between. And it doesn't matter what trade you're in. I think the big thing is there's a lot of people out there that feel like college is the only option. And you three are actually proving that. In fact, it's not the case.

At different stages of your career, different routes to get here, but Patrick, you tell me all the time the money you're saving, the things you're investing in. In fact, I remember you telling me your goal was to buy a house before your friends graduated college. Is that still a goal? Yeah, of course. Yeah. He just bought a jet ski, so he works his butt off all week, and if he's not working on the weekend, he's usually at the river jet skiing.

Ryan, you do the same trip, right? Frankie, he uses his time to be a world traveler, right? Pretty soon. You've been quite a few places. You're getting ready to take another trip, right? I'm getting ready. So I think these three gentlemen are a perfect example of work hard, play hard. When I hear about what they're doing, they've got 401ks. They've got medical insurance, right? They're doing investments on the side outside of the 401k, outside of retirement.

And Frankie, how old are you? 26. He's the senior guy, right? 26. But that's still, I mean, you're so young. Ryan? I'm 20. 20. Yeah. So Frankie's 26, and Frankie's been here for LeJuan four years of that. He was going to college, okay? So he's got a college degree. And the other guys are in their 20s, but they've got medical. Well, you don't have medical because you're still on our medical insurance, damn you.

But he can have medical insurance. They have a 401K. They're investing. in in different stocks and things on their own and they're saving money and they're enjoying life and they work hard they work hard but with that said you came into the trades what would be the one thing that most surprised you about you know getting into the trades i think the thing that most surprised me was kind of how easy it was to get in i thought it was some impossible mission you need to go to trade school for however many years you got to get But it wasn't like that. I came in as green as they come. I didn't know a single thing.

And when you're surrounded by good people that want to teach you, it makes a difference. Yeah. How about you, Frankie? Kind of piggyback off of Ryan, but the thing that surprised me the most was how passionate your coworkers are going to be and how willing they are to help you when you're in a tough rut. I've been on calls, and I've had a call of senior techs, and they will take their time out of the day to guide me through a call. walk me through it and if i'd mess up they'll call you out but it's only to make you better and better i think that's been my biggest thing is having the support system that i have not only with my dad but all my co -workers as well that are have been beyond supportive of me joining the trades patrick what surprised me was probably just uh learning about how much fun you can have while actually working sometimes you just kind of forget what you're doing and you just kind of get lost in a groove and then you realize wow like slows your mind down puts you It's great.

I will tell you, the work ethic of all three of these individuals is amazing. It's impressive. And I don't think it's all that unique. I think we have some really amazing individuals in this country, young men and women. that do amazing things. But it's really neat when you get to experience it firsthand. Frankie, for instance, Frankie will still help out in the warehouse as we're going through some transitional changes.

On the weekend, he'll come in and open up the warehouse and help out if we need it. One of the stories I'll share, and I'll just share this one. I know there's many of these for all of you guys, but I was in my office. It was about three o 'clock on a Friday. My son comes in to say, hey, dad, I'm done for the day. I got done early. I just want to. come in and say hello before I headed out. I said, all right, cool.

What are you doing? He says, I'm going to go home, get cleaned up. I'm going to go out with my friends, okay? I said, well, be safe, be smart. I always say be smart because you can be safe and dumb, right? So I'm sitting there at 6 o 'clock, same Friday, 6 o 'clock, and he comes walking back into the office. I was like, I thought you went home. He said, I did. I got out of the shower, and they called me.

There's a main line back up in Palm Springs. So I'm just waiting on the other guy. We're going to go out and work on it. And he got home like 11 o 'clock that night. And the next morning, about 5 a .m., I hear the shower kick on. He was getting up to go back out to, you know, once they got it flow restored, then I had to go out and do the repair. And that's the trades, right? That's the trades. I think what we do is I say it's a lot like being on a fire department.

Somebody doesn't have plumbing, they don't have AC or heat or the power's out, you got to go. And I think for me personally, that's a pretty rewarding aspect of it. What's one of the, in your short tenure, craziest things you've experienced? These are going to be good. There's a couple. A recent one that comes to mind is one me and Patrick were on. We were under a mobile home doing a whole home re -pipe, and there was about a million spiders under there.

And it was pretty scary. Oh, yeah. I remember hearing that. We had installers up in Yucca. And they were under there and ended up being a bunch of rattlesnakes. And we had to get the woman up there that rescues rattlesnakes to come and get them out. But, yeah, I know there was one real big spider, right? I understand, like, almost like it might have been exposed to nuclear waste or something type size.

Frankie? I think for me it was more of how much you can accomplish in one day when you get the right crew. We had a double system install with zoning and duct work, and it was four of us. And I said, man, there's no way we're doing zoning and complete systems. I mean, they said, why not? We got four of us. And I said, okay, well, I'll tell my lady I'm going to be home late tonight. And sure enough, man, and the thing with that that's the most impressive is not only doing the work but also not dropping in quality.

You can slam in a duck job, but if you don't do the quality of it, then why would you even rush through it? Take your time. But when you have the proper crew and they have the right mentality and they all have the same mentality of let's finish this today, let's get it done, ooh, man, you can accomplish whatever you want. Yeah, well, and I think to your point, it's something, if you're somebody in the trades or wanting to get in the trades, if you can be organized, it's one of the things a guy taught me. If your truck's organized. and it's clean, you'll make more money because you'll be more efficient, and you'll have a structure and you'll have a process.

And the same thing goes for a job site. If you have a system and you have a process and everybody can be aligned on that, you can get amazing amounts of work done to high degrees of quality systematically. So, Patrick? One time we were pulling a toilet, and as soon as we pulled it, about like 50 or 60 cockroaches just came out running all over the place. And we just, I mean, we tried to stop them from, you know, running all over the house.

We just had to sit there and squish them. And once they were all squished, we had to go and clean them all up. So that was pretty gross. So that video you put on Reddit? Yeah, I put it in like a plumbing forum, and it got like 15 ,000 views, a bunch of comments. Like, it was pretty crazy. Yeah, it is a crazy video when you see it. It's like maybe something from a horror film. You know, with my time on the job, I have quite a few.

This one house I used to go to, the woman showed up, opened the door every time and negligee. So I put in there, Patrick only, right? It was the weirdest thing. I was like, okay. And then, but here is the weirdest call I ever had. I was brand new. I was finishing my training. Me and this tech go to a house, and the woman comes out. It's a tiny little single -story home, but there's gates. And she opens the gates, and we pull into the driveway, and then she closes the gates and locks them.

And I'm like, okay, uh -huh. And so we go up. We look at the unit. It was a package unit. We come back down. The tech I was with, his name was Adam. And he's like, you know, we need to get in the attic. And so the attic access was in the hallway off the kitchen. But it was all sealed shut and it had all this foam sealing it shut. It had all these boards nailed against it. And then there was another door to a bedroom or something that was all sealed shut.

And she's like, oh, okay, well, over there you can get in the attic. So we went to the other side of the house and we get up in the attic. And we're looking around and it was like. It's an old house, right? So there's not much insulation. The duck works in bad shape and everything like that. So anyways, we go back downstairs and we're talking to her and she walks away and she comes back. She had picked up a Bible and she says, now listen, I know you saw everything up there and, you know, I'm going to need you to swear on this Bible that you won't tell anybody.

Well, the woman's crazy, so I can—even though I had to swear on the Bible, it wasn't a true swear on the Bible. And she's like—she starts telling her father, and there's a picture of him on the wall, and he's in uniform, and he was with the government and all of this different stuff, and that all the stuff in the attic was nobody could ever know about, and it was secretive, and there was nothing in the attic, right? Anyways, we're like, okay, yeah, we swear. We swear. And we finally get out of there, and we're like not talking to each other, me and Adam.

We're just like, what the heck is going on? So she finally – and she unlocks the gate, opens the gate. We back out. I remember pulling away. I was in the passenger seat. As we're pulling away, I just look over at Adam, and he kind of looks at me. We're like. What the hell just happened? Right. But it was you. You encounter all kinds of things because you're going to different homes, different businesses.

And, you know, hey, variety is the spice of life. Right. And there's a lot of variety out there. There's a lot of different people with their own quirks and things that they do and don't do and are into. And so you get to. And I will say, I think that's one of the cool things about the job is for the most part, you're not at one place all the time. Or if you are, it's only for a day or two. maybe a week if it's a big job, but you get to go meet a bunch of different people and encounter different things.

So, Ryan, you had mentioned something about what most surprised you is how easy it was to get into the trades, and I think that probably surprises a lot of people. You know, it surprised me. I went to trade school, and then I was out. I looked for a job. I happened to answer an ad on Craigslist, but I had applied at a couple places. And I thought at the time, I'm like, I need to get experience through a trade school to learn what I'm doing.

I didn't really know how to get into trades, even though I had dabbled in them when I was in high school. But that's just because I knew the guy's father. I was surprised. Like I found a home. They took me in and they were going to train me. I ended up obviously learning more on the job than I did in trade school. But I was like, wow, I had no idea that. I could go get a job and they pay me to learn.

It wasn't always like that, right? A lot of times it's very hard to get a job or at a period of time it was. We're at a period of time where the trades are in such demand for talent because we went through this period of time where everybody go to college, go to college, go to college. Well, guess what? Everybody went to college and now we have a bunch of piece of shit personal injury attorneys because guess what?

One. They shouldn't be an attorney. Two, they need to make money because a good attorney, you know, they're already busy. So they start becoming ambulance chasers. And nobody's going to law school anymore to that degree because they're like, ah, well, there's enough billboards out here. I guess they don't need any more billboards. You know, so I like to pick on those guys. Anyways, the thing is everybody was going to college.

Go to college. Go to college. And then I think what you found is, wow, you get out with a degree and there's not a lot of people. waiting for you. And I remember telling Frankie, I was like, no, I didn't tell Frankie this. I'm going to tell you now. Frankie came to me once and I said, oh, you're going into finance. Why do you want to go to finance? He's like, well, you know, I think I can get a job and I can travel and, you know, I can work remotely.

And, you know, a lot of these companies, because that was a big thing, right? A lot of these big companies and da, da, da. And I'm thinking to myself, that poor kid, he has no idea he's going to work in the basement in some mail room. for a decade trying to get the experience until somebody recognizes him and brings him up. There's been too many movies. Wolf of Wall Street, it was a real thing. But I'm like, man, you usually got to cut your teeth and be brought up before you get to any level of real recognition and high income earning.

And so, you know, the trades, because of the shift, Where now people – everybody went to college and were pushed to go to college and there was almost this belief and feeling I have to go to college. What else am I going to do? The trades has a huge deficit in talent. I was listening to something the other day. It was a couple of weeks ago now that because of AI, because of these data centers and everything like that, right now there's like a need for – I was staggered by the number, 500 ,000 electricians, right?

It's unbelievable. The baby boomers are retiring. The ones that have been around have all the experience. They're retiring, and now people have to come up. And I can tell you, as somebody who owns a trade business, finding good talent is the priority. Finding good talent is a priority. And I will tell you something I've noticed about hiring young kids that could have gone to college. or did go to college and have chosen to go into the trades, that really good high school education, they are very detail -oriented.

They're note -taking, using the technology to record their findings and document things. It's fantastic. It's one of those things that translates very well. into the trades. So it is easy. If you're somebody that's considering the trades, wanting to get in the trades, how do I get in the trades? There's a couple of routes. Obviously there's a union. The union is very good at training. You got to put in your time or you can go to trade school, but you go into trade school, you still, you're getting out.

You just kind of know the book stuff. You got to put your time in. And the great thing is right now, there are enough businesses out there that are willing to hire. people with no experience but the right attitude, the right work ethic, and train them, pay them, and train them to learn a trade. The one word of caution is, and my son said this to me, he says, Dad, I'm going to be here a lot longer than I originally thought because I realize there's so much to know that you're not going to put in two or three years and be able to go out and start your own business. I mean, there's a lot to know if you really want to learn the trade, right?

There is tremendous opportunity to get into the trades. There is an organization out there, Explore the Trades, which I'm a big supporter of. And they're a great resource too. And they go into a lot of the schools and help educate people on how to get into the trades. Because these career days where colleges and different organizations and the military would come into your school. They don't seem to happen like they used to.

There is ways to get into this, into the trades, being paid to learn. And you guys are all in that stage. You guys are all what we would consider apprentices, correct? But with that said, you're still making a pretty good living based on being paid to learn right now. But it's hard work. You're out in the environment. You're in homes without air conditioning when it's 100 degrees out. You're in homes. with backed -up toilets or no running water.

So the days can be long and the work can be hard, but any job can. Of course, if you love what you're doing, no job is really hard, right? It has its hard moments, but that's life. So being here, being new to the trades, being in the apprentice role, you guys are making good money. Not nearly as much as you're going to make with a few more years under your belt, but share with me, if you don't mind, what maybe the kind of money you're making, the biggest check you've...

Maybe had. Biggest check I've had, I think, was around $1 ,200. But then again, I'm still first year. I know I'm. Yeah, you're not. You don't even have a year in. Yeah, not yet. Yeah. Yeah. So and you're not you're you're always with somebody right now. Right. So because you're you're brand new, brand new. Frankie, you've been around for a while, but you're brand new to out in the field. Yeah, I just got into my van.

You know, I finally earned the right to be in a van. It's been my first month. And I could tell you. Really honing in on my craft and practicing and role playing. It's just helped me immensely. I just got my biggest paycheck today. I did $16 ,100 in revenue last week. I cleared $4 ,500 and I got my bank account. You clear. Everybody talks about what they take home. I'm like, I'm sorry. Everybody be like, I'm not making enough money.

I only make this. I'm like, no, you make a lot more. You got an issue with that. Take it up with the government. I'm not taking your money. The government's taking your money. So keep voting Democrat. You'll keep taking your money. Uncle Sam got his cut a bit, too. So that was your take -home, though. Yeah. Mine was about $3 ,500. 20 years old. Now, Ryan, still a $1 ,200 paycheck for somebody. You've been here.

When did you start? I've been here a little over a year. Okay, a little over a year. Ryan has. that is in his favor long -term but not favor short -term is we moved him all over the place. Like one day he's riding with the electrical guy. So you've just been in the plumbing track, though, probably for the last five months? Yeah, four or five months. Yeah. Well, that's fantastic. I mean, that's great.

And then there's weeks that all you're making is whatever your hourly is. You don't hit your performance metrics or your bonuses or, you know, the opportunity is just not there. But most of the time, of course, it's what you make of it because there's opportunity all around us. With that, Patrick, I want to push this to you because you were in a college prep school. And I remember there was a time when you were younger, you told me you wanted to be a lawyer.

And I thought, wow, that's perfect for him because he loves to argue. Along the way, your mind was obviously changed. What was probably the biggest one thing that... I said, no, that's not for me. I definitely want the trades. Being in the trades was like a four -year head start versus not going to college. Considering in the trades, you can still make great money. You can still have a great career.

And without the four -year education or just, you know, eight years if you're going to be a lawyer, doctor, you can still make the same amount of money with no time wasted. You know, you jump straight into the trades. You're learning. You're getting better every single day. And you're just making money at the same time. The way you said it, it's a four -year head start. And bigger head start than you sometimes imagine because there's no debt.

You guys are getting paid. It would be like going to college and getting paid to go to college. And you do have that opportunity. It's called the United States military, right? You can go to the military, and they will pay. And that's a very viable option. You can learn a trade. You can get a college degree. In fact, I was just reading this article, and I've known about them because I followed Jocko Wilnick, right?

SEAL Team 3, he enlisted in the Navy, joined the SEALs, a decorated combat SEAL, got his degree while in the Navy. He was a medic with the SEAL Team. Got his degree, became an officer in the Navy, figured, hey, I love being a medic, went to Harvard Medical School, became a doctor, then went into aviation. And he is now an astronaut. And there's a kid that literally chose a trade. The military, to me, is a trade, right?

It's a window into so many different things. He happened to become a medic. There's welders. There's electricians. There's plumbers. There's HVAC guys. There's damage control. There's all these different opportunities within the military. It's a perfectly viable opportunity to get paid. to learn something uh you guys happen to be in the trades and i think it's just it's amazing and i'm so passionate it's one of the reasons i originally started the Tradepreneur show because ryan to your point being surprised how easy it was to get into trades i got into trades i was surprised at that too and i was like man i would have got into trades earlier if i knew i could have got in there and been paid to learn something and so i was like but there's so many people i wonder how many people know this i wonder how many people know that they can get this same opportunity And have a company train them and get paid to do it.

The last thing, as we wrap this up, I want to just say to everybody, say to you three, but anybody listening to this, anybody that's thinking of going in the trades or getting in the trades, you have to continually learn. And I will tell you, it's something that these three gentlemen, I see in them, and I wish I saw more of it, and I love when I see it. And just know, if you're in the trades or going to go in the trades, Continuing education. And don't wait for your employer to continue your education. You will get opportunities to learn from your employer.

Any good employer is going to make sure that happens. But you have to read. You have to watch the videos. You have to self -study. If you really want to maximize your return on the potential you have in the trades, because every one of you, in a very short order, will be making. Six figures easily, easily. And that opportunity exists for anybody that wants to get in the trade. You just have to put your time in.

You have to learn. You have to invest in yourself. The opportunity is there. The trades is a great profession. And I am proud to be a part of it. I'm proud to have my son and my business partner's son and my son's friend choose to enter the trades as well. So with that said. It's another episode of The Tradepreneur Show. Thanks for listening. Remember, until next time, win the day and be great. The Tradepreneur Show is brought to you by Patrick Somers.

Executive production by David Field Producer. Producing and editing by David Field and Kristen George. Original theme song, Blue Collar Working Man, written by Patrick Somers, created using Suno AI. To be a guest on The Tradepreneur Show or for sponsorship and partnership opportunities, contact Patrick Somers. Patrick at... thetradepreneurshow .com.