Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The travails of the trade life are fraught with challenges
24 Plays4 days ago
Embrace them!!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Controversy
00:00:00
Baker Plbg
Hey everybody, hope everybody's having a fantastic day. Listen, I often get asked, why am I here? Why am I on this platform? Why do I say the things that I say? why am I, i'm called critical and controversial because I'm not as supportive as others think I should be And that's, you know, your lens is what your lens is.
00:00:24
Baker Plbg
Um,
00:00:25
Baker Plbg
I am not here, I'm not promoted by any manufacturer or whatever, although I use them all. I have Rigid, Milwaukee, like I we i am invested in the trade and I've been doing it for a long time.
Relating to Younger Generations
00:00:41
Baker Plbg
And people suggest that that is a disadvantage.
00:00:47
Baker Plbg
because I can't relate to the younger generation. And I literally say bullshit to that because I am the father to five kids who I relate to very well from the ages of 33 to 19.
00:01:02
Baker Plbg
nineteen I relate to them all great. So that criticism I cast to the side is not understanding.
Blue-collar Dedication and Sacrifices
00:01:13
Baker Plbg
um You can look at my whole, what am I doing here is to show you what dedication and commitment to the blue collar world can provide for you. I live a fantastic life and it's evident on the screen. I'm not showing off and bragging. I'm like, listen, you can have this stuff too if you're willing to make the sacrifices.
00:01:41
Baker Plbg
I was thinking about the other day. i mean, I've taken like four vacations in my life, very few weekends off. That's what it takes to be successful
Trade School vs College
00:01:51
Baker Plbg
in this world. And you can go through, i Googled it, but I'm not going to recite it, the advantages over to trade school compared to college.
00:02:02
Baker Plbg
And there's no doubt in the last five or six years, that equation has flipped to the benefit of the trades. because there appears, certainly in the media, that we need trades.
00:02:16
Baker Plbg
Everybody that I talk to, particularly in Canada, say that work is slowing down. I mean, we're busy as hell. We focus on the service space, which as I have said before, we transitioned to that in 2008 and have never looked back. It was the best decision I ever made.
00:02:37
Baker Plbg
We have never not been busy.
Truth and Realism in Trades
00:02:41
Baker Plbg
But I think we need to be careful with um the people that we promote in this thing and whether they actually know what they're talking about. You can be rah-rah and supportive of everybody. And I'm not...
00:02:58
Baker Plbg
not supportive. I'll support you any way that I can, but I just expect it to be truthful and real and upfront. And the blue-collar world has always been a difficult,
00:03:14
Baker Plbg
engaging, um Unforgiving space.
Learning from Criticism
00:03:19
Baker Plbg
ah One of my very first memories working for my dad, did a I did a stack.
00:03:27
Baker Plbg
And it was a cast iron stack, you know, back in whatever that was, 1979. Anyway,
00:03:33
Baker Plbg
anyway maybe it was like, maybe it was like 84. We'll say that. Anyway, I don't remember the year, but I, and he walked up to it and had just finished it and I was looking back at it I'm like, look at that, man. And he literally kicked it.
00:03:46
Baker Plbg
and said, dude, it's crooked. Do it again. And walked away. And I do remember the feeling of being upset by that. and I'm like, dude, I just spent the last hour working on that. And you like it was like a sandcastle. He just kicked it over and said, it's it's not straight. Do it right.
00:04:06
Baker Plbg
And I could have latched on to that feeling of feeling unappreciated of him being mean or critical or whatever.
00:04:18
Baker Plbg
And instead, and I did, I did feel those way that way. Absolutely. ah But instead of embracing that, I'm like, okay, all right. Took a breath, reevaluated what I did and redid it. And he came back and went you know what, man?
00:04:32
Baker Plbg
Fantastic job. That looks great. And I have often said to my own children and to others, listen, you need to believe everything I say, in whether whether I'm complimentary or critical.
00:04:47
Baker Plbg
If I'm complimentary of something you do, I'm not telling you that because um I'm you know trying to blow sunshine up your butt. I'm telling you that because that's genuinely how I feel. If I'm critical of something, that's genuinely how I feel.
00:05:02
Baker Plbg
It's not some made-up thing to try and manipulate. this That's how I feel. And it doesn't mean I'm always right, and it certainly doesn't mean that I'm always wrong. But I think it's important that when we engage with people who have the experience, have the knowledge, and and come from a place of care and concerning, that we weight those opinions carefully.
00:05:30
Baker Plbg
Whether you think I fall into any of those categories is completely and 100% up to you. I don't really, it doesn't really matter to me
Life's Journey and Family Foundation
00:05:39
Baker Plbg
either way. My life has been just a fantastic journey of learning who I am, learning what I'm capable of doing, um and reaping both the risks and rewards that come with making those decisions.
00:05:57
Baker Plbg
I am a summation of all the decisions that I have made throughout the last 56 years of my life. And you will be too. And i people are like, oh, that's too simplistic. It is not.
00:06:14
Baker Plbg
It is exactly how this game works. And it's like investing when you're 18, that compound interest pays every year without fail.
00:06:25
Baker Plbg
And if you are if you are consistent and dedicated to that process of improving yourself, then it will translate into great and wonderful things in your life.
00:06:38
Baker Plbg
And I, truthfully, I, because of the trade because of its Father's Day, because of my father, because of my grandfather and my mothers and my grandmothers, the foundation that was laid for me, as I said in my post this morning, has laid a foundation that is solid and smooth and straight.
00:07:05
Baker Plbg
And what else can you ask for in this life other than to so stand on solid, smooth, and straight ground? get yourself going. And if if that is not the blessing that you have in your life, then I encourage you to work really hard to make your life and your children's life or the people that you care about lives solid, but smooth, and straight.
Embracing Risks and Real Conversations
00:07:29
Baker Plbg
I did not say safe.
00:07:31
Baker Plbg
It should not be safe. There should be risks involved. Anyway, those, as always, are my thoughts, not yours. Happy Father's Day to everybody. Good luck out there. It's a crazy world, only getting crazier, and it's important that we have ah measured and real conversations about what's happening in our lives and in the world in general.
00:07:51
Baker Plbg
Have a fantastic day.