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As Paul Ask Paul. What's up? Everybody? Welcome to another episode of

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Let's Ask Paul, the podcast where
you get to ask me Paul Abernathy anything

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you want about the electrical code.
It could be electrical well, I guess

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it doesn't have to be code,
he could. You could ask me anything

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you want about electrical business. I
asked me anything personally you want to ask.

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I don't care. You know,
advice on marketing for your business.

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I've been through it all. I've
I've had to market businesses, some successful,

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some not all those type of things. So again, all you gotta

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do is go to Paul Abernathy dot
com. It's a free service, doesn't

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cost you anything, and you can
submit your questions directly through the portal that's

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over there at Paul Abernathy dot com. So, folks, thanks for listening

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to the podcast again. Another month
where record numbers. We have millions of

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downloads. So we're just stick static
at the to be honest with you,

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quite shocking that the majority of our
exposure is through our podcast less videos.

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I don't do as many videos as
I used to do. I do have

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some over on our channel over on
the YouTube channel, which is always master

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the NC, So if you're searching
on YouTube, that's what it is,

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and master the NEC all one word. And of course I stream on many

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other platforms. We do use restream
to send out our our videos so that

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they kind of get mass consumption on
the different platforms. But as you all

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know, I'm not a big fan
of all those different platforms, so it

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is what it is. So but
anyway, thanks for joining me today for

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this podcast. I got an interesting
question, actually two questions. One is

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going to be fairly quick just to
answer the question, and then one I'm

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gonna go into a gentleman that kind
of I guess he seems that he's at

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this maybe maybe he's a crossroads.
Maybe he's a crossroads in life as as

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an electrician and you know, kind
of working as an apprentice. I can

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take it from reading it that he's
an apprentice and trying to make a decision

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on where to go, especially in
an economy like this. You know,

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there's a lot of stuff that has
posted online about union and making double time

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one hundred and fifty some an hour
and all this stuff, and he's starting

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to, you know, trying to
say what's best for my family, what

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direction. Maybe he's an area that
doesn't It appears as an area that doesn't

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have a union. And again I'm
not for or against unions. I've just

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never was a part of one.
There are some benefits obviously for everything.

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But you know, it's far beyond
for me to be able to have that

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conversation. But but let me get
to the first question at hand that was

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presented to me here at Let's ask
Paul. The first question really was,

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can you explain how current travels through
the conductor? I have heard that it

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travels on the surface, and others
say it travels in the core. How

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does it travel? Thanks in advance, Okay, so I'm gonna keep this

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early thirty thousand foot. I'm not
going to talk about the protons and neutrons

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and the nucleus and the free electrons
and the valance shells and and all this

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type of stuff that make up the
atoms, and and how you apply voltage,

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which is pressure to cause current flow
or actually the movement of these electron

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electrons and reactionary state. I'm not
going to get into all that. We'll

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leave that to others to to go
deep into that. Certainly it would a

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visual would help with that. The
question really that I get and I believe

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will answer your question. The question
I get is people seem to think that

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the electricity will keep it simple.
We'll take all that stuff I just said

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and make it simple. We'll compile
it into this this phenomena we call electricity,

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and it they think that as it's
traveling through the wires, that it's

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actually traveling if you want to buy
into the traveling thing, that it actually

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is on the perimeter of the conductor
right just underneath the insulation well in building

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wire and building and there's other people
out there that would try to make you

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believe that the current's traveling on the
surface and things like that. Reality is

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we're talking about sixty hurts. Hurts
is a frequency and that's typical building wire

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in Europe. It's fifty here,
it's sixty in the good o us of

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A. And when you have currents, so if you had a DC,

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a purely DC system, okay,
direct current, no alternating current, no

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expanding and collapsing magnetic fields, no
peak, whether it's positive or negative peak,

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none of that, just direct DC
current like from a battery. If

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that's the case, the current that
is created and everything associated with it,

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the movement of those electrons in the
product being the opper wire or aluminum wire

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or whatever. All of that is
traveling through one hundred percent of the conductive

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medium. Means it's going through the
middle, it's going through the various levels.

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It's using the entire conductor. So
when you think of ac current alternating

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current, it does not just travel
on the outer perimeter. Now, if

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you're talking about high frequencies, or
we're going really up in high frequencies,

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kind of think about the frequencies being
high frequency, it kind of from the

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core out, it kind of pushes
it towards the perimeter, and you can

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have something called skin effect where the
current's traveling on the skin of the conductor.

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Essentially, you could have a hollow
conductor and most of the current would

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travel or most of the current would
be on the outer perimeter. But in

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building wire sixty hurt is it doesn't
happen that way, and it travels more

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or is in the conductor more and
a donut, if you will, so

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not really so much in the core, but out, you know, out

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in the layers like a like a
donut donuts. Okay, I can just

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have this home or moment. So
it's it's traveling. You know, I

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can't keep using the term traveling,
but that's how people think about it.

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Flow like a flow of water.
That that's just what's ingrained in people's head.

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Doesn't really work like that, but
that's what's ingrained. So I'll just

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I'll go with that image that locks
something in your head. Hell, you

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could be driving down the road and
I don't want you to have an accident

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trying to think of something different.
But so when you think of that,

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the majority of our current UH is
in the entire conductor, but with DC,

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it's using it all the way to
the core. EC it's it's it's

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it's in layers from the core,
but it's still using the majority of the

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conductor itself to carry to handle that
current. Right, And so I think

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that people tend to think that,
and there is this misconception out there that

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we have skin effect issues with sixty
hurts and you do not. The hurts

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would have to be much much much
higher in order to have any potential for

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skin effect and things like that.
So I'm not sure that answers your question.

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But as you have a source of
power, a supply, a generator.

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It's going to generate voltage. That
voltage access pressure moves those electrons,

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gets them very active back and forth. And since it's alternating current, it

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moves up you know, every you
know, forwards and backwards, forwards and

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backwards. Uh. If you think
of sin your sort of wave form,

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if you're familiar with that, you
have a rise, then you have a

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peak, then it falls to midpoint, that drops below you have a peak,

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and it comes back all in one
cycle. And so keeping it simple,

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it's constantly changing directions. So that's
why they call it alternating current.

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So it's going to use the majority
of the conductor. It's not going to

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just be traveling on the surface.
That's called that's that's like skin effect,

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and that's only for higher frequencies.
Now, obviously I could I'm trying to

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hold back because I could go much
deeper than that, and that's what our

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ac DC theory course does. It's
called the fast Tracks Yellow course that we

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have. It goes much deeper into
the number of electrons and how they flow

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and the whole process and everything.
But you know, it's probably unnecessary to

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answer this question because it's just wanting
to know the makeup of a conductors.

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So don't let anybody, even in
building wire, don't let anybody b as

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you and tell you that the current
that's trying you know, that's being you

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know that this conductor can handle is
based on only the perimeter's That is simply

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not correct. That would be a
false way of thinking. Okay, So

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the good news for that is when
people ask us about conductors and you're stripping

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the insulation off and you nick a
conductor, other than weakening the stability of

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that conductor at termination or if you're
flexing it or bending it or whatnot,

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it's kind of hard. You should
try. You should obviously try, but

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it's hard to get insulation off and
not put micro nicks in it. And

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a micro nick is not going to
affect the reliability of the conductor. Even

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though you'll see stuff out there that
talks about little gaps and an arcs over

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it, Really the conductor uses way
more than just the surface, so it

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tends to be fine deep cuts.
Then you can get down in the conductive

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material, then that can be a
problem. Create an arc that type of

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thing, and you could have a
problem over time. But it's really about

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the mechanical stability of the termination when
you nick a conductor like that. But

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there is that misconception that that nick
is going to cause current to not be

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able to bridge it because it's a
small little kind of micro scrape or whatever.

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It isn't and no, that's it's
not going to happen. Now.

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I know people are gonna go freaking
go off and say, oh no,

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you can't have any nicks in the
conductors, and you're not supposed to.

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You're supposed to pay attention when you
strip it. But I'm here to tell

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you it's not nearly a catastrophe as
some people would make it sound. Okay,

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you just have to know that there's
definitely more of that conductive material that's

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going to actually handle the current.
Okay, So the next question, it

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really was a life life thing,
I guess for this individual. It says,

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Hey, Paul, I'm at a
crossroads in my life. I have

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a family, I'm made good money
as an apprentice. Okay, yeah,

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that's that's right. I couldn't remember
he as an apprentice. I make good

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money as an apprentice, but I
know there's more for me. I can't

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seem to get motivated to change my
life. I can't seem to get motivated

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to take my career to the next
level. What's the incentive. I work

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for a contractor who pays me well, respects my work, but I just

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feel like I can't improve my life. What advice can you give me?

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Okay, tough one there, And
I've talked about this before. You know,

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you probably are sitting out there listening
to this podcast and you're in the

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same boat. You're getting up in
the morning and you're going out to work,

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busting your butt and you're making your
pay. And in our in our

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case, luckily most cases in the
electrical trade, skilled labor are doing pretty

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good. I mean we're still you're
still making money, you're still working the

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economy. Being in and you know, in the shitter or going that direction

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doesn't make things easier, but you're
getting by and you're making him you're feeding

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your family. Now here's my thing. That can cause people to get quite

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complacent, right and being accepting the
norm whatever you have and saying, Okay,

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I don't deserve anymore, or I
don't deserve to have more from you

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know, and you do. You
absolutely lutely deserve to have everything. You

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know, we only go around this
rock one time, and let you're a

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Buddhist and then you kind of think
you come back as a butterfly. But

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you go around this rock one time. You have to make the most of

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it. Life is short. Stop
and look back in the mirror and say,

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damn, ten years where were you
ten years ago? I do it

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all the time. I look back
and I go, Jesus, where did

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the time go? I remember,
you know, back in school thinking that

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jam I. I was lucky enough
when I went to university that I did

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an online school back in the day. I mean, I mean back in

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the day when I got a lot
of work credit as a master electrician early

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young that when I went through my
program, they gave me a lot of

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lab credit so I didn't have to
do the residency portion at any university.

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I could get by with my licenses
and credential. And I don't know that

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you could do that today. I
don't know they allow that today. You

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know, and the work life experience
is looked at, poo pooed on when

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it comes to a degree. You
know, I've heard people say this,

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A college degree is really just telling
your employer that you're committed to going and

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doing something every day for four years
or whatever it takes you and that they

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can feel that you're going to be
reliable. I mean, that's really all

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it is, to be honest with
you. I know so many people that

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come out of school that are just
dumb as a rock, and all you

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got to do is watch some of
the stuff online surveys that people do.

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They know nothing, and you know, hey, you know, God bless

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them. You got that piece of
paper. I got the piece of paper.

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I got tons of paper. The
only really thing that meant the most

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to me in my career as an
electrician. And this is how I'm speaking

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to those out there that may be
listening. You're an apprentice, then you

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need to be you need to strive
to be a journeyman. Not necessarily because

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you're going to get more pay.
I mean you should, right, makes

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sense, But that's not the goal. That's not what I'm We all have

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to have these personal goals, personal
things that you want to achieve and milestones

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that you want to want to do. For example, when I was working

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and I became a journeyman, it
was not a year before I was striving

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to be master and that was my
ultimate goal, is to be a master

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electrician, and in our profession,
that's as high as you can go.

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You can't go any higher. And
if you think being an electrical engineer,

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and there's some people out there to
say I want to be electricman, it's

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because they liked the title. They
think that there's some kind of extra glory

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in that. There's not. When
I got my degree, I knew,

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damn well, I didn't want to
work in an office and work on schematics

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and and CAD all day and design
systems for other people to be that.

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This wasn't my thing. God bless
those that do that. It was not

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my thing. I couldn't. I
just could not do it, especially in

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that time in my life. I
was active, I was working with the

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hands. I wanted to build it. I didn't care so much about designing

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it. I wanted to build it. I wanted to work on it.

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And so for me, all that
other stuff was just an extension of moving

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into teaching and education and all that
kind of stuff. But the most the

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proudest I ever was was when I
got my master's license, So you know,

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and it wasn't for money, it
wasn't for extra this or that.

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It was for me it's what I
wanted. Now, you're very comfortable,

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and I'm speaking to the person that
wrote the letter or wrote the sent the

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email, and I get it.
You're comfortable. You're you're you don't want

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to rock the boat because you're you're
doing okay. You're you're you as you

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said, you said, you're making
it, You're you're you're doing all right.

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But at the end of the day, you're questioning yourself, so you're

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not doing okay right. And there
can be all different moods and feelings of

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inadequacy. There can be the feelings
of depression. You know. People don't

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understand today that depression is is is
real, you know, and and it's

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not just post traumatic stress disorder from
being in an active war zone. It's

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it's it's the games that the mentally
can be played on you when you sit

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there and think, is this it
for me? Is this it is?

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This? Is this all I'm aspired
to be? And it's only going to

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be you who decide to break that
chain and say, you know what,

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I'm going to better myself. I'm
gonna gain more knowledge, I'm gonna take

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the profession that I that I'm in
and I'm gonna excel at it, right,

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That's that's a that's an innate thing
that's got to be in you.

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I know plenty of people who will
say they'll put twenty five years in being

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an apprentice, or even twenty five
years being a journeyman. And I'm like,

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how I couldn't do that? And
they're like, well, I have

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no incentive. What's the point if
I get the master? My boss is

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not going to pay me anymore,
and I'm not going to be able to

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do anything more than I'm doing now. I'm already leading all these projects.

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What do I need a master's for? And then that's the situation where I

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have to look at them and I
have to you have to sit back and

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00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:55,039
you look at me. Go think
about what you're saying. You don't want

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to further your knowledge, You don't
want to get better just because somebody is

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not going to reward you. How
about rewarding yourself? How about knowing you

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achieve something that that type of mentality
is going to be far more beneficial to

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you. To think that, you
know what, I'm a journeyman, but

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you know what, I'm going to
strive to be a master. And then

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you know what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna strive to be the best master

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electrician I can. And we're not
talking about just being the best conduit vender,

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right, We're talking about learning all
the nuances. Like, Okay,

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00:20:33,799 --> 00:20:37,640
pick a topic that is tough for
you. Let's say you don't understand transformers.

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Hey, you Mentally you're like,
I don't get the configurations. I

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00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:48,640
don't understand delta, delta, delta, Why why a delta? I don't

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00:20:48,799 --> 00:20:55,160
get it. I don't understand how
to size the overcurrent protections and conductor sizes,

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secondary conductors. What are the different
types of transformers? What is an

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exo? What are the bonding requirements? I mean to be a specialist in

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your field, and that's what a
master electrician is. There's no level above

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master electrician in the conventional sense of
licensure. Now, this is what spawned

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00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:22,559
me to create the CMECP. And
I'm not here to do a commercial Okay,

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00:21:22,599 --> 00:21:26,039
today is not a commercial day.
I'm trying to be real with the

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00:21:26,079 --> 00:21:30,319
individual out there about the motivation.
It's necessary to say, you know what,

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00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:38,119
I am not happy with where I
am mentally, But the CMECP program

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00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:45,759
is a certified master Electrical Code professional
program that basically enhances your code knowledge,

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00:21:47,079 --> 00:21:51,559
enforces what you know, and then
it helps you get to the next level

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00:21:52,039 --> 00:21:56,599
of knowledge. And at least it
quantifies it and it lets everybody else know,

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00:21:56,119 --> 00:21:59,960
because at the end of the day, there isn't really anything higher than

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and a master electrician. And please
do not think that being an electrical engineer

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is higher. It is not.
Most electrical engineers know nothing about the National

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00:22:11,319 --> 00:22:15,359
Electrical Code, only enough to get
by. They take some electives, if

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00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,480
you will. And I was already
lucky because when I went to schooling,

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I already had code. I'd been
doing code since I was fifteen years old,

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00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:32,599
taking night classes and summer classes on
code from local inspectors who were holding

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00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:37,400
these apprentice classes, which typically for
apprenticeship programs. But they would let me

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00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:40,559
take them as well, and I
would take it. They'll take your money

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and I'd sit in and get all
these things. I still have the certificates

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from those classes back for that forty
years ago. Anyway, we have to

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keep pushing, keep learning. Doesn't
mean you have to know everything. Nobody

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knows everything, Okay, I don't
care if they tell you they know everything.

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They're full of shit. Nobody knows
everything. I certainly don't know everything

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in that National Electrical Code. And
there's people that I'll go to code panel

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meetings and in different people that I
know an industry that want to make you

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think they know everything. They don't
know everything. There's it's impossible to know

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00:23:21,519 --> 00:23:26,039
everything. They're just really good at
googling, or they have a friend they

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can call, or they will do
research on something. I do that,

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so I'm presented with questions and it
may have come across that I know everything

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about the National Electrical Code, but
that's not true. And I slip up

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all the time. You know,
I might be saying something, it come

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out of my mouth and I don't
realize it till after it's alive. It's

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public and we know we know that. Did I know better? But it's

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just it's life. It happens.
But your body of work over time is

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what is what really really matters.
So if you're an apprentice, you should

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00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:04,680
always be striving to be a journeyman. Again, every state's different in their

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classifications, in their licensure and how
they go, So I get it.

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I get it. So this is
not a you know, boiler plate for

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every state but if there are levels
for you to aspire to, then you

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00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:25,400
should do them. I'll give you
an example. If you're in a state

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that doesn't have master license but has
journeyman licenses and you're thinking, what do

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00:24:27,839 --> 00:24:32,200
I aspire to because the next level
is a contractor and you don't want to

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00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:36,519
be a contractor, Well, then
you know what what you should be doing

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00:24:37,319 --> 00:24:44,640
is because it's all about knowledge.
Is probably taking ICC courses or classes or

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00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:48,119
exams. You know, there's there's
the E ones, e twos, e

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00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:55,079
threes. You know they have the
residential commercial and then plans examiner and those

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00:24:55,119 --> 00:25:03,160
are just enhancements in your knowledge and
it keeps you moving forward dead. It

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00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:11,119
just keeps you moving forward and gaining
more knowledge. Again. You can say

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00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:15,839
that you're happy, and a lot
of people will say they're happy, but

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00:25:17,319 --> 00:25:22,599
you you're not. You know,
a life isn't always just about money.

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00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:26,839
We have to have something that can
fulfill us as well. And knowledge is

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00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:33,759
that that thing, that involvement,
that immersing yourself into something that's going to

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00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,200
teach you something or give you this
tidbit of knowledge, it's going to enhance

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00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:45,279
you. That's uh, that's amazing. For the psyche So my advice at

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00:25:45,279 --> 00:25:49,720
the end here is I'm going to
end this podcast is to the gentleman,

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is that you need to keep pressing
forward in in your learning. And if

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00:26:00,039 --> 00:26:03,839
there's another level to whatever state you're
in, if you're you're an apprentice and

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00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:08,640
there's a journeyman, or there's a
master's level, set a goal for you

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00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:14,000
to move through those and become a
master. Master should be the pinnacle.

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00:26:15,079 --> 00:26:19,480
And if you become a master,
you should not take that is you're done.

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00:26:21,279 --> 00:26:22,680
In fact, when you become a
master, think of it as a

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00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:30,880
doctor. H and you're a specialist
in your your field of electricity. That

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00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:37,400
now it's it's incumbent on you to
continue to learn. Take take the stuff

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00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:41,880
in the code for example. That
and for people to say they don't need

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00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:44,680
to learn code, you're you're a
damn fool. You were, you were

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00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:48,880
a fool. Everything you do on
the job on a day in and day

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00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:53,400
out is wrapped around code. Right, You're you're bending your race ways.

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00:26:53,519 --> 00:26:56,559
Okay, so that's manual, but
you know that you can't have more than

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00:26:56,599 --> 00:27:00,559
three hundred and six degrees between pull
points, right, you know have to

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00:27:00,559 --> 00:27:03,720
secure it and support it. Okay, where do you get that from you

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00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:07,400
get it from the code. Now
you might do it every day, becomes

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00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:15,839
a mundane task, but ultimately everything
is tied back to a code. So

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00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:21,079
one of the things I tell all
the time to people is being a really

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00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:27,759
good electrician is expanding the knowledge,
the physical part. I tell people all

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00:27:27,759 --> 00:27:30,000
the time. I can. I
can teach a monkey to pull wire,

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00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:33,799
all right, really you can,
right, you just reward them and tell

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00:27:33,839 --> 00:27:38,640
them to pull you know, probably
teach them how to bend condo it as

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00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:42,720
well. Okay, Benfield, bender's
pretty easy. I think it's pretty simple

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00:27:42,799 --> 00:27:48,240
to do. Three points, four
points, saddles, offsets, kicks,

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00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:56,640
those types of pretty pretty simple,
right not. Not brain surgery by any

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00:27:56,680 --> 00:28:00,039
means doesn't make anybody a spectacular electrician
because they can bend a little conduit.

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00:28:00,759 --> 00:28:04,599
I'm sorry that offends people on you
know, it is what it is.

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00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:11,599
You do anything repetitiously. What that
tells me When people post pictures of all

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00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:15,119
their conduit runs and all this fancy
conduit I know they're proud of it,

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00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:18,960
but you know what I see when
I see all that, I see somebody

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00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:25,359
who's been doing the same damn thing
for years and in order to get some

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00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:29,519
type of mental satisfaction. They have
to post a picture. That's what I

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00:28:29,559 --> 00:28:33,880
see, and so I start to
think about, well, you know,

335
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:40,559
it might benefit you to think outside
of just what you do every single day

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00:28:40,599 --> 00:28:47,759
of your life. Right, So
that's just that's just my mentality of it.

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00:28:47,839 --> 00:28:51,680
And people can agree to disagree and
that's okay. That is perfectly fine.

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00:28:52,079 --> 00:28:56,440
All right, Well it's it,
folks, keep pushing forward. I

339
00:28:56,440 --> 00:29:00,960
appreciate all of you. Thanks for
listening to the podcast. Again, you've

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00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:06,880
made a success. This is a
kind of a weirder error podcast for me,

341
00:29:07,359 --> 00:29:11,119
but I'm glad you listened. Hopefully
you listen to the end. And

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00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:14,000
if you did listen to the end, do me a favor. If you

343
00:29:14,079 --> 00:29:19,599
go to fast trackstube dot com.
It's our videos subscription platform. If you

344
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:26,559
go there and you sign up for
a free membership account, all you gotta

345
00:29:26,599 --> 00:29:30,440
do is, if you listen to
end of this, send me an email

346
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:37,920
or send us an email with the
code five four three. That's five four

347
00:29:38,119 --> 00:29:45,920
three, and I will update your
free membership to an annual membership and give

348
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:49,119
you one year for free. And
then you not pleased when it comes time

349
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:52,319
to renew it, you just don't
need to renew it. But if you

350
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,839
are pleased with what you have or
what you're getting or how you feel it's

351
00:29:55,839 --> 00:30:00,920
working, then you'll renew it.
But if not, use five four three

352
00:30:02,279 --> 00:30:07,519
and go ahead and get a free
membership. Okay, over at fast trackstube

353
00:30:07,559 --> 00:30:11,720
dot com and drop us an email
with the code in at five forty three

354
00:30:11,839 --> 00:30:15,319
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355
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:22,559
at fast tracks tube dot com and
we will elevate your free membership up to

356
00:30:22,599 --> 00:30:25,519
an annual membership. Again, I'm
giving you a gift of one hundred and

357
00:30:25,559 --> 00:30:27,319
twenty five bucks a year. There
you go, all right, folks,

358
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:33,720
till next time, Stay safe,
God bless and uh again. Top out,

359
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:37,599
keep learning, never stop learning,
max out your trade. Become a

360
00:30:37,599 --> 00:30:41,640
master or whatever the highest level is. And if you're a master, become

361
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:47,759
a CMMECP. It's the ability to
keep enhancing your knowledge. Take care of

362
00:30:47,759 --> 00:31:15,559
folks as no no ask, no
f
