The electrician

I know a person who runs a very large electrical contracting business. He has a staff of around 50 people and has been running the business for more than 30 years. He once told me of the story of what got him started. This story is not verbatim, but it is worth sharing here.

‘I remember when I was an apprentice electrician. Everyday in the lunch room the fully qualified sparkys would whinge about how well the boss was doing. That the boss made money off their labour, and that they should go out on their own, take a risk and start their own electrical contracting businesses. But other than the whinging, most of them would never do anything about it. They’d just come back to work everyday and tell the same story of how they should quit their job and startup their own firm. None of them ever did. I wasn’t even finished my 4 year apprenticeship and I was sick to death of hearing the same old story. So I promised myself that I would go and start my own business, fail, go broke and get it out of my system while I was still young. I didn’t really care about running my own business, I just didn’t want to end up becoming a whinger like those other blokes.

So I did. I went out on my own and started. It turns out I became the opposite of those guys in every way. I didn’t whinge, I went out to fail, and failed at failing. Thirty years later I am running a multi-million dollar business. It’s amazing what you can become if you are sure of who you don’t want to become.’

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4 thoughts on “The electrician

  1. What an inspiring story! Sometimes taking that plunge to “get it out of the way” is the same drive needed to succeed.

  2. Wow… Its better not to give up easily on your dreams. Failure is a part of success and you will learn from your mistakes. Nice motivation of yours.

    Thanks a lot for sharing this.

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