let's talk about the worst shock that I've ever received [Music]
the worst shock there's been a few so I need to preface this by saying uh it's not good ever to
work on live circuits I've learned that through a trial by fire over the years and coming across
people that had different messaging than what I was brought up through when I was brought up in
the industry there wasn't a whole lot of safety it was just a lot of machismo a lot of like just get
done you know like stop being a wuss just do it and so I wasn't trained with safety as like the
important thing when there was something that was like unsafe master electrician be like hey don't
touch that I'll touch it and you know like that was probably the most of it um I learned through
blowing up a pair of clients and then having to go spend money oh like you need to check the romance
before you cut it uh lots of dumb things like that and I learned what to touch and what not to touch
again the hard way and I started going into groups and forums and stuff online I started hearing
about this whole safety thing and then as I was studying code I would like come across the 70E
you know electrical safety and start reading stuff and I'm like what's this lockout tag out business
you know what I mean so that's not good if you're out there running a company this way and you got
people and this is how you're going about it stop doing that it's your job to train people to keep
them safe so that they can go home and see their families at the end of the day anyways all right
now let's get in my stupid shots I think the story under the house is probably the best story [Music]
so I was in the trade for I don't know maybe like three years at this point two
years something like that it was right around the point where I got my residential wireman's
license and I think even maybe before it this was like a side job kind of thing I've done
videos on why you shouldn't be doing side jobs as well if you want to watch that but uh I think
this job I was out in the middle of nowhere so this was out in Fayetteville Texas which is the
middle of nothing nowhere lots of open Texas land with no houses anywhere and I was on this house
that was a pure and beam house which just means it's kind of like it's a house on stilts so you
crawl under the house to work on stuff and most of the wiring was done under the house where they
would drill holes and push wires up and that's how they wired it rather than going up into an
attic so I was under the house it had been raining for days on this particular day it wasn't raining
anymore but the ground was super saturated and wet so one thing you have to understand
about electrical current is the only way to slow current down it's not really slowing it it but
the only way to like manage the amount of current going through something is by adding resistance
to a circuit if there's very little resistance a whole lot of amperes are going to flow if there's
a whole lot of resistance not very much is going to flow your skin the human body actually offers a
certain amount of resistance to electrical current depending on where you're getting shocked if you
moisten the skin and make it wet it's a much better conductor so it offers less resistance to
current flow so more current will flow at through any given point and it's always very important
for you to be cautious of where you're getting shocked from you're never going to get shocked
by like touching a thing you always get shocked from touching two things so current is flowing in
a complete loop from The Source through your body and back and so I just didn't know all of these
things right I'm just out here doing side work trying to get money so the ground was wet I'm wet
sweating profusely underneath this house in the middle of Texas you know summer in this particular
situation I was laying on my back in the mud and working above my head and again laying on the dirt
I got maybe I don't know like 18 inches worth of space between me and the floor people stand on
and there was a junction box under there and I remember going and I didn't have a good Tester
the little tick Tracer I was using the little it was one of those things where like it sat in my
truck in the back and got rained on it's like sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't work
sometimes it made really crazy noises other times it didn't make any noises but it lit up
I didn't know what I was doing I kinda knew but I was just like hacking this to try to get through
it and that's always when you get hurt and so I was under here messing with this junction box and
I pulled my little sniffer out and I didn't hear anything on this wire so I just assumed it was off
and so I'm like all right open up the junction box there's wires in there
and I stick my hand in and boom immediately get hit I'm like [ __ ] and it hurt because I
was wet and my arm was touching the ground and my hand was touching the shaft of a tool or whatever
the hell even happened I don't even remember what happened but I do remember just getting shocked so
I crawl out and go over the panel start trying to flip Breakers I'm there by myself there's
no homeowner there's nothing I'm just middle of nowhere and they had a huge panel it was probably
like a 42 circuit panel with every slot taken up and so I'm sitting there flipping Breakers
trying to listen for this thing and it just keeps falling down and the ground so we have to go back
under there and put my ticker back up and try to balance it and eventually I just heard it go off
and I didn't realize that it had just slightly moved so when I got back over there I was like
all right cool circuit's off you get under there and I start taking all the wires out and dude that
I took one wire out and I guess it was the hot one breaker didn't shut off I had the wrong breaker
and that thing I I got shocked on my fingertip and so I just felt this Buzz while I'm laying under
the [ __ ] wire and so it drops on my chest and hits me and my body bounces and it just went right
through me and it hit me right where my heart is you know so like I'm fortunate that I didn't
die from this but it hit me and then it laid on me and I'm sitting there like no like actually making
audible noises not trying to just that's what's coming out and I grabbed the wire and I push it
up and it fell down again and it just kept going boom and hitting me he's shocking the [ __ ] out
of me and finally I just [ __ ] tucked and rolled and got out of there and I sat there
this hurt bad this is the worst like pain of a shock that I'd ever experienced before like it
went through my skeletal system you know like I felt it on every level because I was soaking
wet so it was just like I felt like I just had a spider web of electricity just to come over me and
I'm filthy and just sweaty and it's hot as [ __ ] and I just can't believe that I did what I did I
thought that I should have died and that started to mess with my head and so I just said after I
caught my breath I was like you know what [ __ ] this [ __ ] like dude I'll go wait tables this is
not worth 25 an hour for me for that hour I was under there for me to like almost kill myself for
25 [ __ ] that [ __ ] I'm done it's electrician shits for the birds so I grab all my stuff I'm
all pissed off go over my truck just [ __ ] throw everything into the back of it slam the tailgate
get up and I take off I ain't call the homeowner I didn't say [ __ ] I was just like [ __ ] this and
it was like an hour and a half two hours away from my house so like not only was it not like a job
local it was something that I had to like Drive forever to get to and uh I'm driving down the road
and I start thinking right like I love this and I've never loved anything I've done more jobs than
the average person because I've just had it I've been a single dad since I was 18. had to have two
three jobs at a time because when you're making 15 an hour quarter comes out for government for taxes
quarter comes out for baby's mama so that's 750 an hour that you're bringing home and 40 hours a week
at 750 an hour is not [ __ ] when you're trying to pay for your own place to live you ain't got
anybody there helping you roommates anything like that so like being broke man that was my
story for so long so I've just had to have a lot of different jobs and there's no job I've ever had
other than this other than this electrical thing that I've actually loved and so I started thinking
about it and I'm like am I being a [ __ ] right now you know like am I just giving up on something
because it's easy and I'm pissed off and so I probably got like a mile or two down the road
and I pull over and I stop and sat there and I was just starting to hitting the [ __ ] steering wheel
and being like [ __ ] [ __ ] I was so so angry and I have a kid you know and like that started
to [ __ ] with me too and I'm like I could have just orphaned my kid under this house being stupid
and then I realized this is my fault this isn't electricity's fault it's reliable it does what
it does right this was my stupid [ __ ] fault that I allowed myself to be in a position like
this to not know something to just be trying to do janky [ __ ] just to make some money
and at that moment I realized I haven't mastered this thing that I love and I'm letting it Master
me and it's in control and I'm not and that needs to change so for me to get to a point where I feel
Mastery at this craft that I'm [ __ ] in love with I need to go back and finish and if only because
my word is my [ __ ] bond in life in general they all know that about me when I [ __ ] say a thing
I mean it and when I say I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna follow through with something I [ __ ]
do it and so I'm not gonna go call this customer and be like hey sorry I shocked myself and I'm
just done nah man I'm gonna go back to the job I'm gonna finish the job I'm gonna turn every
[ __ ] breaker in that whole house off in a fit in a rage but I'm gonna finish this job and I'm gonna
follow through and show up for what I said I was gonna do so I did I went back took a long breath
I think I kicked my tire maybe kicked my truck a few times because I was so [ __ ] mad at myself
and that's the thing right like I'm harder I'm harder on myself than anybody can be in comments
or I don't give a [ __ ] about any of that I'm [ __ ] brutal in my own head from time to time
or I was I used to be I actually like I think I'm doing pretty all right I'm like proud of myself
and happy of where I'm at I've got that like inner confidence now so get back and crawl under there
and oh I shut every breaker in the house off and I get back under there and I put everything back
together run the wire do whatever I was supposed to do it was like the last task of the day so I
was already done with everything else so I just did what I had to do and finished it and thought
the entire time about how [ __ ] stupid I was to have gotten myself into that situation and how
easily just trying to do something half-assed and not really care and not be cautious and take some
extra precaution to ward off the risk how stupid that was and I'm here to tell you y'all watch
these videos of me and the electrician you and you think that I am like this super electrician people
tell me that [ __ ] you know writing content the comments he's the goat he knows more than I don't
I actually don't know more than everybody and I'm not the best electrician out there I still [ __ ]
up you know like as a master my job is now instead of trying to not [ __ ] up my job is to try to
[ __ ] up you know what I mean like my my role is like I should be perfecting what I'm doing so much
that I need to be looking for the ways in which I [ __ ] up because it's far less than it was when I
was you know younger when you're an apprentice you're [ __ ] up everything right so you're
looking for those moments when you do something perfect um as a master it's like you should try
to perfect your craft and your method of your craft so much that your blindsides are few and far
between and then having conversations with people that do know more than use like every master has
a master so like I love when I do something or I explain something in a way where I said something
wrong or I understood something wrong or an analogy that I use to explain something was like
way inaccurate I love that [ __ ] I actually love getting feedback from people because it's only in
those moments that I realize I can learn something and once I've been wrong and now I know a thing
now I can be right for [ __ ] ever you know what I mean so I actually like being wrong I like making
mistakes and learning from that so anyways one thing I I have to finish on is if you are working
in an environment where people are not practicing safety I know right the thing to do is like [ __ ]
on the safety guy if you're working on a big high rise you're like 500 people with like you
know brand new clean hard hats that have never even seen a wall have never been scratched no
stickers on them from all the different job sites they've been on they got their safety glasses and
their clipboard and their fresh pressed little blue vest or whatever the [ __ ] it's hard to
respect them right because they're telling you to wear your hard hat when you're in a hole this big
and you can't fit your hard head there's some dumb [ __ ] out there yes and so safety gets a
bad rap because some of the people that are trying to tell you to be safe have no clue what they're
talking about they're just like hired paid a bunch of money because they got some [ __ ] degree and
they're up your ass about all this [ __ ] this liability [ __ ] with insurance companies you
know it's like I understand the lack of respect in that environment because I've done high rises
I've been in those environments aside from that okay that disrespecting that I understand
to be a master of your craft you have to take ownership you have an obligation now that you
can't just be somebody that shows up and and takes a paycheck home now the wealth of knowledge that
you have and the amount of impact that you have on an environment commands that you take your
reach seriously and you think about the impact of your decisions so now you have to care more
the people under you and around you now it's your responsibility you sit in court with a judge and
some kid got electrocuted on your job and you're a master and you've got that MasterCard they're
gonna Grill the [ __ ] out of you it's your job to have made sure that they go home at the end of the
day so there's a lot of liability and seriousness with which to take your role it's the other half
of what we do we don't just pull wires like these mindless wire monkeys jumping around pulling wires
through holes there's a lot to know with the amount of seriousness you take the electrical
code to understand how to install things so that people don't die and Equipment doesn't burn up
buildings don't set on fire with that same level of seriousness you need to understand
safety this [ __ ] can kill you easily people are like oh 120 volts isn't going to kill you
bro 120 volts depending on the situation I could have [ __ ] died that was 120 volt piece of 12-2
Romex that fell on my chest fell on my heart through moist water on the ground I should have
died but whatever the value of resistance was that I was offering to you know the the current that
was traveling through me wasn't enough I can't stress this enough people Gaff off safety what
we do you need to take with deadly seriousness I always say like in life don't take yourself
so seriously but take with what take what you do with deadly seriousness I'm getting philosophical
here with you and I promise I'll wrap the [ __ ] up life's like a game right we there's levels to
this [ __ ] and there's problems constantly new problems knocking on your [ __ ] door your whole
life always just knock and knock and knocking and as soon as you solve and figure out a problem
and you're like uh I'm great boom you get hit with another problem somebody smashes your car
whatever life is problems and it's like a game it's a puzzle for us to sit and figure out our
way through all of these different problems funny enough a lesson seems to repeat itself over and
over and over until you finally learn it and then once you're done learning it problem doesn't come
up anymore you know or if it does you just handle it differently so it's really not a problem now
but the more advanced players of a game they start studying the game as a whole and they
start mastering the entire thing because now they have a 30 000 foot view of the whole thing and
for you to ever be top-notch super All-Star baller electrician best of the best electrician you have
to know how electricity works you have to delve into the science of it you have to know what PPE
is when you can work on things live when not to you need to understand what lockout tag out means
and how lock boxes work and how to make sure that all of your people go home at the end of the day
if you're gonna take this [ __ ] that serious be good at it don't be out here fronting like you're
[ __ ] good when you really are terrible and you're making stupid decisions and you're [ __ ]
endangering other people's lives don't do that [ __ ] take this [ __ ] serious anyways enough
of my rant I love you crazy [ __ ] please be safe out there take this [ __ ] seriously Safeguard the
people around you Safeguard yourself and always always be a Craftsman and a student don't think
you're at the top level and you know more than everybody that's some Childish [ __ ] right there
always act like a student always take what you do with deadly [ __ ] seriousness do good every
day try to impress yourself every [ __ ] day of your career and you'll get there love you bye