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Thomas Nagy and Paul Meenan fill in the blanks... · The Electrical Show

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  The Electrical Show with Thomas Naji sponsored by Boss Professional, Powerful power Tools sort
• 0:06
  for measuring tools and experts accessories. Welcome to the Electrical Show here on Fixed
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  Radio with Bosch Professional. Now I'm Thomas Naji with Paul Meenan in the studio
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  once again. Now on today's show, Paul and myself, we're gonna do
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  something a little bit different and we're gonna we're gonna go with the sort of
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  fill in the blanks show. It's more of an exercise about our trade.
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  So I'll give you an example. If you're listening and quite rightly confused,
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  Paul, complete this sentence. Good sir. The hardest thing about being an
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  electrician is all the sex. Okay, so you get the gist. Not
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  a show. I agree with it, but you get the gist. Oh
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  sorry, you're asking me in a serious man. Yes, the hardest thing
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  about being electrician if genuinely soul searching, probing, either the long hours and
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  depending on what industry you're in, sometimes a loneliness. I you do talk
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  about you know, sex, you do talk about it. But it is
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  true. I did a job discuss it on the radio. Well, I
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  mean copulating. Should we say Okay, yes, I didn't do a job
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  once, and it's actually I'm sure everybody can relate to this. Did a
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  job once, knocked on the door, stunning woman, really nice, but
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  she was in like you know, jogis and just because the first time we've
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  ever been there, went about the second time dolled right up, So I
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  was like ideal. See, you do get a gauge of whether they're interested
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  or not telling you my stories because they are way too blue for radio.
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  So let's stop there, fix radio. Time to crack on. This is
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  the Electrical Show. I'm Thomas Naji with Paul Mean and him. We're doing
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  a fill in the blanks exercise, if you will, about our trade.
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  So we're just getting started. You haven't missed anything. So each of us
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  are going to give an answer for these and then we're going to explain and
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  discuss our answers. So I'll start. I'll fire over to you, Paul.
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  The hardest thing to master in our industry is I think the hardest thing
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  to master in our trade is upskilling. I think that is. I'm on
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  a journey of doing that, and let me tell you it is the hardest
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  thing I've ever done. So do you know. One of the hardest things
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  I think to master is is the old knowledge, the amount of equipment knowledge.
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  You walk in someone with a client and they go there, you go,
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  and they expect you to know everything immediately. And you see now,
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  especially on social media, as a generation of people who are going, what's
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  this and it's a while x three or three six board, or it's something
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  a little bit older or these old like Lucy cutouts or Henley cut outs,
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  which the pitch field. There's there's missing knowledge which over time is becoming is
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  becoming more missing, if that makes sense. Okay, our answers actually weren't
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  that far apart in that case, because that's part of yeah, Okay,
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  it's all part of a leveling up journey, isn't it. Yeah, definitely
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  all right. The aspect of working in our trade that will challenge you the
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  most, Paul, will be health. Your health. As you get older,
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  you get sour, and when you're chasing the money, sometimes you neglect
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  your health. I am guilty of that. When did you find that your
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  health? You noticed it just you know, your body creaks a bit more
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  at one point. Fortunately, I've got arthritis in my back, so it
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  really affected me young, which is why I came off the tools full time
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  at a young age. Because I was waking up and rolling out of bed
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  and then going into the motor to switch the heated seat on so that I
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  could actually move, and I was popping pain killers like Smarties, and then
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  that was it. I just thought, I can't do this. I've got
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  to do something else. My body was just screaming no, and I was.
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  I was stupid. I was either crawling under floorboards in awkwardly tight cupboards
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  in lost spaces, hanging off of ladder racks day and night working. I
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  was amusing my body alone. Let you do that so long years? All
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  right, okay, So what about you? Then? The aspects of your
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  job that will challenge you most, What do you think it is. I
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  think it's staying up to date. I think that's a pretty challenging. We
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  live in a world where everything is moving so quick, trying to stay up
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  to date with it. He's so good because he's right. I mean,
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  I some people think I'm reasonably intelligent. I feel thick because I struggle to
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  keep up to date every week. It's ridiculous to changes in our industry,
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  the pace of it's incredible. Good answer. Okay, So the ways that
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  working electrician will never negatively impact your personal life will be there, we go,
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  there, we go. Well, I mean it depends. If you're
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  self employed, you're going to be You're just going to be burnt out by
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  thirty five, most likely single, and you'll have just pushed every single penny
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  you've got into your business because you're just you're you're buying into a vision that
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  only you can see if if you work for a company, happy days,
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  But for everybody else, Yeah, it's it is tough. If you work
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  for yourself, it's it's a roller, it really is. Okay. Yeah,
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  My my answer to that was basically ours. It's the trouble is is
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  your last in or your first in and you always do long hours. You
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  can turn up on the nine o'clock on a Monday morning and go happy days.
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  See if I can get away early, and you won't be getting started
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  till three because the other trades are behind. So yeah, ours and we
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  aren't going to do because you may not even get paid for that day.
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  So you've got to get there. You've got to get it done. And
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  I think this is why our industry I don't know is it's still could we
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  check, mister producer, if we still have the highest divorce rate of all
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  the trades, because it was that I heard, Yeah, it was when
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  I was an apprentice, we had one of the biggest relationship and marriage breakups
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  of all the trades. But there's some dark aspects of our trade. It's
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  a stressful job. Yeah, there's a lot to it. But I think
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  a lot of that as well. It's not just to not cast a cloud
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  of doom. It's it's a combination of the work life and family normally and
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  the personal. Yeah, trying to find that work life balance is really tough.
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  That's a really especially if you work for yourself, that's properly difficult.
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  Totally agree. Fixed Radio and Thomas Najie with Paul Mina and on the show
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  today we're talking I was about to say, we're talking about saying, but
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  we're not doing some fill in the blanks, fill in the blank exercise.
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  I'm so used to saying that we're talking about, but today we're not.
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  We're doing a fill in the blank exercise. There reveals our thoughts about this
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  trade. Paul, the biggest positive about our trade is the amazingly good people
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  that are still remaining in it, the ones who are willing to be selfless,
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  give everything, ask for nothing in return. There are some amazing people
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  I've met over the years on social media. Some some people that if they
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  asked me, I were jump in my car and drive across the country to
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  help them and ask a penny from them. Yeah, there is, there
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  is, There is still a contrary to popular belief, some amazingly good people.
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  I wish there were more, but there are some wonderful, wonderful people
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  in the orangustry still touch Yeah, I like that. What do you think
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  the biggest about our trade is? I think the biggest positive about our trade
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  is it can be immensely satisfying. Only it's it's kind of like perfection only
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  happens in brief moments. You can't sustain over hours, but it happens in
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  brief moments. But it is. You know, sometimes you'll get days where
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  it just it's gone perfectly, and it's just that that's a very good that's
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  a big satisfying feeling. That's a big positive. It's very reflective of you.
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  You should release an album called Reflections of Thomas Naji so we add that
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  to the history corner on Fixed the Right Brothers again. Indeed, I've had
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  so much jib for that. I just I like, I like it.
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  It's really deep and meaningful when it's a beautiful thing. So right, Tom,
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  The biggest misconception is that that is a really good one. And the
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  biggest misconception is that you can earn a truckload of money quickly. I think
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  that's a real false statements that there is a there's a thing. Are you
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  big bier spy? You learn a hundred k easily? Though probably it's like,
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  well, yeah you can, but it takes time to get there.
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  That's not you know, that's not you can't just do that from day one.
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  It's a really good point. I was going to say. One of
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  the biggest misconceptions and I've heard it a few times in my career is and
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  people turning around and going, well, you've got to do is just why
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  live to live? Neutral neuts Earth to earth single phase of free failure.
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  Sockets are easy. Lights are easy in principle once you've learned it. Yes,
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  the theory is easy, but when you apply the theory into a system
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  approach and you make sure things are safe, and you're challenged on it.
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  There's tons to learn, and now that most homes have got voltige, optimizes,
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  battery storage, inverters, solar, pv EV and all the other bits
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  and bobs that go with it, you're going to walk into a house one
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  day going yeah, yeah, I'm really good at this, and you're going
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  to look at it and go what the hell? Yeah what? I don't
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  know any of this stuff is. I don't even know if it's wide right
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  or not. So the biggest misconception is it's it's easy and some basic principles
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  are the same everywhere. It's getting more and more complex. Of course it
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  is, Paul, Yes, the downfall of our industry could be feeling we're
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  gonna have the same answer here, we're go on. So this is a
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  really hard one because my initial thought is industry influencers, but realistically, coming
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  back into reality, it's the short courses. And I don't mean that in
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  a horrible way to those who've done short courses, but our industry is flooded
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  with people who absolutely have a right to feed their families and absolutely have a
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  right to be here. But our industry has allowed people to come in and
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  do work unchecked in every way, shape or form, and that's only going
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  to lead to more instance, more injuries, more accidents, and the the
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  we're almost too late at trying to close the door. And I wish to
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  God that the she would be properly regulated, and I think if it isn't
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  soon, I think our industry is screwed. Do you want to shive you?
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  Influencers are just marketing bods, aren't they. But I think our industry
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  is screwed if we don't regulate it properly and clamp down and license people.
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  And that's not me saying get rid of short course people. As I said,
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  everyone's got a right to feed the family, but we need to help
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  each other a hell of a lot more. Helping each other as well.
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  I'm not a million miles off the answer more or less the same sort of
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  answer. Downfall of our industry is training, because I mean, well you've
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  seen, in fact, you saw it working on a job down and that
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  was an outfit of I don't know three sparks. I think that we're there
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  and the state of that work. We literally they'd spent three months installing it.
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  We literally walked in and we just ripped the entire they'd literally about ninety
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  five percent of it we've removed, and the customers literally just ended up now
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  spending well over twice what you know what he had spent. Seen similar things
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  recently where I've that's right, you spoke about it. Yeah, I've I've
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  I recently went to a hotel which was nothing short of disgraceful, awful.
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  This is this is commonplace now, this is this is a normal. Yeah,
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  that's the scary bit. This is a norm now. And it's like,
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  in another ten years time, I think we'll get to a point where
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  it's like it's it's gone so far, do you know what I mean?
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  We're on a I think the scary journey. Somebody who I met years ago
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  and I respect dearly, said, we're not at the race to the bottom.
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  There is no race to the bottom anymore. We're at the bottom and
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  we're digging through the floor. And I really, I really like that scared
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  me. But when I've seen outside of my wonderful world of railways, and
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  I do go out and look at domestic homes and smart homes and hotels and
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  all these other places, people ask me to go out and I'll always help
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  everybody. Oh my god, I literally have to just contain myself. I
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  went, I went to a house and it had This was literally two saturdays
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  ago. I went to a house and it was EV PV eighteen killer.
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  What's a PV? It had a voltage optimizer read everything in it. It
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  was the biggest lash up of C ones and C two's I have ever seen
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  in my life. And yet it was all, Oh, here's our certification,
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  is our mcs, here's this, here's that. And I'm like,
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  do you actually have a certificate. No, you don't even have a certificate.
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  It costs them tens of thousands. And yet I go on social media,
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  look at Instagram, and there's some great battery installers, take pride in
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  their work, great smart home guys, great ev This was cobbled together and
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  lashed together, and the guys were going, yeah, the main switch was
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  replaced, kept melting timers money awful. Anyway. Before the end of the
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  show, we'll also do a bit of electrical word associations, so stay tuned
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  for that. The Electrical Show on fixed Radio. You're listening to The Electrical
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  Show with Bosh Professionals. Soon to be the History Corner we're going to fit
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  in between links. We might just do a quick twenty second history corner snip.
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  I think I think this has got traction, Paul. I think it's
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  real traction here in eighteen eighty two a telegraph. No, God, yeah,
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  we can do to us nagy with Paul Mean, and we've been talking
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  about where we actually been taking part in a fill in the blank style exercise
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  about our trade. This is very random. It's great, it is.
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  I love it though. It's great now, Paul. The rule we should
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  all follow and should never question is know your limits. You've got to know
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  your limits. If you don't know yourmits, God help your Clint Eastwood said
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  that it's very true. You are a plethora of knowledge. Really yeah,
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  he said, what was it is? It? Is it magnum force?
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  I can't remember. It was at the end where there's a movie reviews.
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  It wasn't coming soon, whereas Boss was driving and the other car bomb in
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  the back seat and I wasn't quoting Clean Eastwood. Know your competency limits,
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  it really helps. Yeah. No, you are a well man's got to
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  know its limitations by you, I love Clint. Yeah. The rule we
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  should all follow and should never question. I learned from you. Trust but
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  verify. Oh yes, yeah, that's my other faith. It's very true.
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  Trust, but verify. You should everybody should follow that. Never question,
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  I believe it or not. Not to mimic him, but that was
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  actually said by Ronald Reagan, was it? Yes, when he was elected.
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  We've got to have a history corner trust, was Ronald Reagan. So
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  there you go. It's still trust, but verify boring facts in the electrical
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  show, Paul, you'll never last in our industry. If you are,
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  there's literally no need to go for works perfectly not humble. I think he's
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  the phrase we're looking for. You will never last in our industry, in
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  my opinion, if you was going to say, cut corners. But the
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  problem is every other Donnie out there's cind of corners, never all any good
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  money. You see. It's sometimes it's the visually impaired leading the partially site
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  you don't know. Yeah, so it doesn't actually really work. But that
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  was my answer, Paul. The type of person you want to avoid in
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  our trade is exactly what you're going to say. Influencers could see you saying
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  that present company accepted of course, although I don't actually consider you an influencer.
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  Influencer to me is son who actually influences me in that regards. Yeah,
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  I don't bear any influence at all any ill will. There are some
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  amazing people doing stuff across the industry, helping people out, training, sharing
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  their knowledge, helping apprentices, doing all this wonderful stuff. I'm not talking
• 15:31
  about those sorts of people. What I'm talking about is the people who literally
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  will sell their soul to sell junk at an overinflated price. I genuinely do
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  the pick and shoot. Well. Now I've stopped doing like Twitter and YouTube
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  viewing for quite a while, but every time I do log onto it,
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  it will say, oh there's I think the last time I checked it was
• 15:52
  about forty plus electrician YouTubers. Now I can't watch all of them. I
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  can't being gay. And what I found is it I just enjoy life more
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  when I'm not watching others. I'm being me. So for me be you
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  be understandably, you try not to be others and don't get And I'm going
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  to say this out loud or probably show. If you are going to be
• 16:12
  an influence in our trade, use it to do good and don't lie to
• 16:17
  electricians for them to part their money so you can make a few quid,
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  just my opinion, as promise. Let's finish with some word association next here
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  on fixed Radio, the Builders Station, the Electrical Show on fixed Radio.
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  That's almost all we have time for here on the Electrical Show today. So
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  just to wrap it up quickly, some quick rapid fire word association Paul,
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  hard work, rewarding, money, security, stressful, of business as usual,
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  really normal day, easy, worrying, or I have achieved a level
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  of good, pointless love jobs, family, worthwhile, helping. It's rewarding.
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  I think, all right, that was good. I like that quick
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  practid fire. All right, can I do you? You can't? Okay?
• 17:11
  So Tom hard work, standard, nice, money, hard to come
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  by, stressful, every day easy, never pointless, very often, worthwhile
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  almost daily at the end of the day. Oh bless you. Well,
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  we're out at the moment, right, we're fitting these. I'm so sorry
• 17:38
  to everybody, but like we're fitting these, not you lads, we're fitting
• 17:42
  traffic cameras and counsels. When they get low on money, the first thing
• 17:47
  they do is they throw up traffic cameras. It makes sense. They generate
• 17:49
  a massive amount of revenue, and there's no lie in that it generates millions
• 17:53
  of pounds for local counsels. And I can't say I can't talk about individual
• 17:57
  burrows, but there's one particular borrow that we're fitting them in now and literally
• 18:02
  talking about what's just pointless. It's literally fitting these I swear to god,
• 18:07
  I'm not lying. Went around yesterday. We fitted fitted seven yesterday, and
• 18:12
  the day before that we fitted six, so it was like thirteen in total
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  as of this morning. I think nine of them were offline, so they
• 18:19
  literally like blade runner and vandals have been out and just battered them with a
• 18:23
  bit of four by two. But it's like, literally like twelve thirteen we
• 18:26
  fitted literally eighty ninety percent of them are all offline. They're just people are
• 18:30
  just taking it into their own hands, and I can't, Yeah, I
• 18:33
  can't. I can't comment on it either. But there you go. You
• 18:37
  can hear all of this again from ten o'clock tonight right here on Fixed Radio
• 18:40
  with more great music. Subscribe to the podcast, by the way, very
• 18:45
  very important and it is always worth a download as we do put exclusive bits
• 18:48
  and pieces in there as well, and please make sure to leave us a
• 18:51
  review it really does make a difference. Because we're building a community of electricians
• 18:56
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