question the new tripod sup guys I get a lot of questions about my apprenticeship that's
one of the sort of main kind of questions I get how long it took who I did it word that kind of
thing I've touched on some of it in the past but today I would like to jump to the end and
talk about how I finished my apprenticeship so I started building in 2004 but I didn't
start my apprenticeship until like 2005 sort of middle of 2005 by the time I was done with
my apprenticeship I'd been with that company for five years and there was one job that made me quit
I got some leftover sheets Egyptian from a job I never chose a customer for its gonna take it
back for a credit but kind of want to make their wall look lighter I don't know the measurement
so the job that made me quit most of the work I did with that company was here in Auckland
a lot of you know high-rises and malls and schools things like that but every now and
then we get sent further afield this particular job was up north the place called Chi Kali it was
an extension that we're doing an extension of an existing building so it's like a over three
hour drive fire up so a bus was kind enough to fly us up there and rent a house now Keiko II
and the Bay of Islands in general that area is beautiful but the job we were working on was a
prison and it was literally a prison we were extending a prison that had prisoners in it
gasps bitter look you can kind of see me clearer now anyway we worked in a prison
how was a qualified boater at this point you know I was feeling pretty confident when I look
back I didn't really know anything you know I'd learned a lot but um yeah I still had a long way
to go so we're working in this prison we were staying up there the boss rented this place in
Cary Cary and ten of us would pile into the van in the morning and drive to prison when you get
to prison is like a dipper and it's this giant garage door and the other end there's another
garage door and you basically go in with all your gear shut the garage door and then you're
sort of locked in this sort of area this kind of works like airport security you get patted down
they account every tool you have your nail punch you know every screw that's in your nail bag is
accounted for and then you get let in and because that process is so long it's difficult to get let
out so we'd do 12-hour days inside prison and not leave and that got they got tedious man you
know day in day out I mean it wasn't all bad you know the work was interesting there was a lot of
concrete work a lot of foundations the area's like kind of like a swamp so we had to account
for that but it was all concrete and steel I remember like one morning actually one of
the days that I was cutting the reinforcing steel to go into footing I had my grinder and I was in
there you know cutting on the steel and measuring it cutting it and this prisoners like right behind
me sort of like leaning on a cage looking down at me watch me work I just so I see him you know
I know he's there and I'm just like hey they tell you not to like talk to them so I tried
not to talk to them cutting away and I finished using it and then I'm just sitting there looking
at my job he looks at me and goes pass this up that grinder burr and I'll break us out of here
another time someone that I was working with got an apple thrown at them you see basketballs
get thrown in like from the outside of prison as well and apparently they were like stuffed
with drugs I don't know but it was a unique experience would be up there for two weeks
at a time in a house filled with guys that you work with but it was good I mean they
a violence was fun there's we went fishing and it wasn't all bad but I I was sort of my
patients was wearing thin I sort of one of the weekends that I went back to Oakland I finally
decided no I need a I need to move on from this company and and do my own thing that's what I did
so I think the biggest lesson I learned from that was that you have to know difference between being
angry at your job and being ready to move on maybe a pays rubbish maybe your boss is annoying maybe
maybe you've been doing the same thing for too long I think the question ask yourself is what can
I do to change this situation is this somewhere else I can go that maybe offers more opportunity
or am I ready to take on more responsibilities inside the company that I'm already in you don't
necessarily have to leave a company but I was ready for that next step and I went to another
company after there and straightaway because I was to qualify builder the guy treated me like
one and see it up sweet you're qualified mate you can look after this two-story house extension now
I was terrified but I jumped in the deep end and it worked out so if I hadn't quit maybe I wouldn't
have done that anyway whole reason we're here today so the whole reason I'm here today isn't
just to put this crazy wall on where I'm doing big things here at Scott Brown carpentry the
cedar is gonna be part of a litter box that I'm gonna build so yeah this is a litter box right
here old decrepit and in need of an update big contract you got to make sure you got all your
overheads in mine make sure you good enough materials these things can sink business drop
service so you gotta take it seriously so you know if I didn't take on that I didn't make that
move I don't think oh damn I would have built up a confidence needed to take on a little box
contract like this as well you see so funny all of these things come together I'm probably gonna
end the episode here if you guys want to chew it in and see some exciting exciting work on this
litter box make sure you're subscribed and tune in tomorrow cuz I'll be doing all that alright