Sweet Vindication

[neurosis]

I had to look up Scat....Nastee,Nasti, nasty.

lol.  The fact that you looked it up.     

Puts a whole new meaning to that song scatman! 

[Jim at Gentex]

...

So no Dave, you're not boring, some of us just had to walk a different path, sometimes, of our own making.



Edit: YIKES!!!  sorry for the long read
 

Thanks for sharing that, JP.
You could probably write a book about your journey at this point!

I am always fascinated hearing success stories, and the various paths people took to get there.
What you and James have both shared here is good stuff, and should be an inspiration to the younger guys here who are trying to navigate their way through this industry.

           

[mayday]

Dam, we writing resume's?

started at West side tool Detroit when I was 16, manual machines
Chesaning MFG at 18, Tape control 2 axis
Jetool, Ground support tooling
Bretco, Micro hole EDM, design and build to install
Merrill tool, My first Niigata for 12 years
Zero Tolerance, bad idea owner was a drunk
Moeller Aerospace, lead 5 x programmer and stupidvisor
JenJacs, Savannah GA. bad idea, dickheads
Roush, loved it till the Dampanic hit, everyone one got the axe
Aerostar, shithole duing Covid
Euclid, back to running a Mazak
Dynamic machine of Detroit, Apps guy
Back with Merrill, Fadal PT, FPT, Apps and engineering at 60 yrs old

[CNCAppsJames]

...I have people all around telling my I made a mistake, I'm going to amount to nothing and a myriad of other similar things.......
...
People have wondered what drives me....well, I drive me and I drive me hard. Everyday I am doing things that I was told would never be possible...I was just going to be another lost statistic high school dropout who amounted to nothing....

I've turned my entire career into a big FU to all of those people...according to many others, I had stacked everything against and without an education I would never have anything more than a menial job.

So back to the start of this, why so many jobs....becasue if there wasn't a path available to me to move forward somewhere, there was no point in me staying......

Edit: YIKES!!!  sorry for the long read
 

That story is badass! Great read JP.

I STILL carry a chip on my shoulder from that rat bastard of a teacher that told me I'd never amount to a hill of shit. Maybe he "knew" it would drive me to change my life. I think that POS got lucky. I probably make 2x more than he ever did in his best years and I'm STILL moving up. Every day I'm learning. I'm learning for my customers, and I'm learning for me. When I'm done learning it'll be on to the next thing whatever that is. Like I could ever learn everything about manufacturing. I've still gotta catch up to #3.

[CNCAppsJames]

...
What you and James have both shared here is good stuff, and should be an inspiration to the younger guys here who are trying to navigate their way through this industry.

Ya know, hungry kids and a wife at home can be a pretty effective motivator too.

My wife... God bless her. She's put up with a LOT over the years. It's probably only been over the last 10 years that she's truly seen the fruits of our labors. I will always say "our" because hit was her that was home with the chirruns and running the house while I was working during the day and taking Community College classes at night so I could aquire the skills to move into my dream position(s). My poor mother in-law. She was at the same company for like 30 years. Me... I can barely hit 30 weeks most places. Where I'm at now... the only way I leave is if something catastrophic happens. I take solace in knowing should that happen, I've got options.

[CNCAppsJames]

Some people carry a chip and are a-holes about it. I try to use it for motivation.

Who am I kidding... I'm probably a TOTAL a-hole about it.

But at least my wife, company, and customers benefit from my a-holeness.

[So not a Guru]

It blows my mind when hear the stories of people of how long people take classes and study to the test, months upon months....I walked into the Community College to sign up to take the GED....this was on a Thursday, I was asked if I had prepared to take the test, I told them no, I wanted to take it anyway. Well, they had a test that was happening on Friday with the 2nd part on Saturday morning...so I signed up to take it....let's just say, the woman didn't have much belief that I would pass it and suggested I might want to at the very least grab a study book and go over it for a week or 2, they schedule the tests monthly...I said I'd take the test tomorrow.

I showed up, took the test both days....3 weeks letter, I get my results in the mail, I passed...I scored in the 98th & 99th percentiles across the board...

This was, exactly my experience, right down to the test scores and days of the week. I was thrown out of 2 high schools in my senior year. Just an incorrigible juvenile delinquent, it's a miricle that I survived till I was 30 (when I finally stopped the drinking & drugs) with most of my brain cells intact.

[So not a Guru]

JenJacs, Savannah GA. bad idea, dickheads

The South is not for everyone.
I've worked for Joey, off & on, for an aggregate of 10 years. That they didn't recognize your talent, nor use you at the level you're capable of, doesn't mean we're dickheads. It just means it wasn't a good fit.
I'm sorry it didn't work out for you here, but I love it.

[mayday]

doesn't mean we're dickheads.

not calling you one, They made a deal of 4 10 hr days with me, Steve came back to run the Mazaks and I programmed for him, good guy. he soon left after I did
punched in a few times 1 minute late due to unexpected road construction and they wrote me up 
then It became manditory 58 hrs a week, I said no
the other programmer unnamed dump everything on me including the Onsrud and then did nothing

[So not a Guru]

not calling you one, They made a deal of 4 10 hr days with me, Steve came back to run the Mazaks and I programmed for him, good guy. he soon left after I did
punched in a few times 1 minute late due to unexpected road construction and they wrote me up 
then It became manditory 58 hrs a week, I said no
the other programmer unnamed dump everything on me including the Onsrud and then did nothing

Yeah, Steve is a great guy we've worked together at 3 different places. They've finally eased off on their attendance policies.
I wasn't offended, sorry if I came off that way.

[mayday]

not at all, We loved Savannah and Tybee Island, that was our weekends
We got a sense some did not like us northern people. My wife has worked in the medical field for a long time
and could not get an interview even with tons of jobs around

[mkd]

This about sums up why young people are not interested in the trades, the money isn't competitive..

When all the MBA's coming out of drinking...er..college believe that the western world economy is a service economy and china will be the world's workshop...it can certainly be a tough sell on the ROI.
 i blame academia.

[gcode]

We got a sense some did not like us northern people. My wife has worked in the medical field for a long time
and could not get an interview even with tons of jobs around

Some people have a long memory and still remember Sheridan's March to the Sea

[CNCAppsJames]

Some people have a long memory and still remember Sheridan's March to the Sea

There IS that. Too bad we have long memories for too much of the wrong stuff.

Woudl be nice if we could remember what Joe Biden said about black people, or what LBJ said about black people, or that Margaret Sanger wanted to exterminate black people, or that WIlliam Jefferson Clinton sent Engineers from Loral Space to China to help them solve their missile guidance system problems so they could launch ICBM's at us, or that Vice President of The United States of America Kamala Harris sucked a married man's penis to get into public office. Too bad we can't remember THAT stuff.

[gcode]

Woudl be nice if we could remember what Joe Biden said about black people, or what LBJ said about black people, or that Margaret Sanger wanted to exterminate black people, or that WIlliam Jefferson Clinton sent Engineers from Loral Space to China to help them solve their missile guidance system problems so they could launch ICBM's at us, or that Vice President of The United States of America Kamala Harris sucked a married man's penis to get into public office. Too bad we can't remember THAT stuff.

and how could we remember?? all of that stuff was heavily suppressed by the MSM and 90% of the country never knew about it

We remember that yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of Floyd George being shot by police according to the Washington Post

Yes.. I know he was not shot at all, but died of a 4x fatal dose of fentanyl, another fact that was heavily suppressed.