Pictured - Dominic Sisa
Location: Tasmania, Australia.
Subject: Valuable Skills For Young Men.
This article is dedicated to the memory of Dominic Sisa - a badass old school Slovakian, who escaped communism to become a successful tradesman in Australia - he is my best mates old man - and he is the fella who taught me the value of hard work. He was old school, hard as nails, and tougher than panther piss. Rest in peace mate, you taught two young boys how to work like men.
Growing up in the country where I come from - you didn’t have a whole lotta options to make a buck as a kid.
You could stack shelves in the supermarket, you could sell petrol at the petrol station, you could clean shit off the shitters, or if you had a strong back like me and my best mate - you could do some real work - build things, dig holes, pour concrete, and push a wheelbarrow. Since I didn’t fancy stacking shelves or selling petrol or sniffing shit, the end of a shovel and pickaxe suited me just fine.
I found a lot of pleasure in manual labor. I loved to see my hands shape the world around me through hard work and sweat. It made me feel like a man. Decades later I still got the calluses of that country boy, and I’ll always have them, because work is in my blood, and it’s who I am - I was raised on a mining camp where men worked, women cooked, and lazy motherfuckers had no place.
So whenever we weren’t in school or exploring on our mountain bikes, me and my mate would work for his old man, a builder and jack of all trades: the fella who this article is dedicated to. He taught us how to work. And he taught us the value of hard work.
I still remember the first time I worked for him - I was riding through town with my mate, when we rode past his dad who was working at one of his properties. We pulled up to take a look. His old man was drinking beer, listening to the radio, and working away.
The job was pouring a concrete driveway and smoothing out the concrete to form the shape we wanted. You had to work quick because the concrete wanted to set. So the moment we got off our bikes, he threw us both a shovel - and we got to work.
By the end of it I was covered in sweat and filth and smiling from ear to ear as I looked over the job we had done. That smile got even bigger when old Dom handed me a crisp $50 note, which was the most money I’d ever made in one hour.
“You’re a good worker. Call me when you want more money.”
From that day on I worked and I earned my pocket money on the end of a shovel, a pickaxe and a wheelbarrow. Then I went on to work in construction doing electrical work, building work, concreting work, welding work, automotive work - you name it - I tried it.
I’ve done a little bit of everything, man. And I know how to make a buck when I need it. But the one thing I wish I did much earlier in life, and the thing I’m gonna talk about now - is acquiring valuable tickets that can make you good money.
As a young man I’d advise you to skip University because it’s a waste of time unless you have a solid plan. These days it’s mostly full of confused children who don’t know what gender they are, and adults who act like little girls when things don’t go their way. In real life you don’t need to pay a fortune to make a fortune.
“You just need street smarts, a work ethic and a pair of balls big enough to stand up for yourself, do a man’s work, and make a man’s wage”
Here are eight things you can do that are cheaper than University, but pay more than most degrees. This list is far from everything that’s out there - it’s just what I personally know of.
Number One - Commercial Diving
While it is far from cheap to become a Commercial Diver, it is still cheaper than a degree and the return on your investment is well worth it.
Why sit in a classroom listening to some fat feminist talk about how men are evil, when you can travel the world being a motherfuckin Underwater Construction Worker?
I am a Commercial Diver - and it is my life - so I can tell you all about it. From welding things underwater, to salvaging sunken ships, to swimming in shit, and mud, and ink, and radioactive waste and anything else that you can’t breathe in, we work in all of it. The only requirements are common sense, a work ethic and the ability to operate in a small team.
You also need to be able to stay calm on the bottom of a river, in pitch black darkness, freezing cold, buried up to your hips in mud, and only alive because the helmet on your head is supplying your body with air to breathe, which is monitored by the guy who tells you what to do, who is on a boat that’s more than 20 metres above you - back on the surface.
But if you can handle that, you’ll be right, and you’ll have a damn good time. At the lower levels you can expect to make around $100k a year. At the higher levels, well - it’s not uncommon to make over $300k a year. You’ll travel non stop, and probably live out of a suitcase. But it’s a truly great life for a young man.
Number Two - Boat Driving
I also drive boats so I can tell you about that too. The tickets are a bit cheaper than Commercial Dive tickets, so it’s easier to get started if you don’t have a load of cash. It’s also fun, challenging, and there are some exceptionally well paying opportunities out there, especially if you move up to higher levels.
You can drive a fishing boat with a bunch of motley lads, you can drive a million dollar yacht packed with hot European models that have huge tits, you can drive dive boats or bird watching boats, research boats, tug boats, and party boats. If it’s a boat, you can drive it, so long as you got the tickets - which are based on the length of the vessel. All of it pays pretty well too, sometimes very well.
Just recently I got off the phone with a mate who was getting paid $800 a day to simply work on a boat as it got transferred, and he wasn’t even driving. That’s what Average Joe’s make per week. And it’s what smart men with a little bit of ambition can make each day.
You get where I’m going?
Money is there for you to make, if you simply go make it.
Now when it comes to boats, I wouldn’t recommend taking a gig driving anything, unless you know what you’re doing. Boats don’t drive like cars, they drive like boats. Throw in some wind, some current, a few tonne of boat - and you’ve got yourself something that takes confidence and skill to handle.
Sinking a ship or crashing into a wharf is never a good look and it’s probably not gonna get you more work. The best way to learn is to go away on a fishing boat, or work on a dive boat, or do anything on a boat - it’s not rocket science. Just go do something on a fucking boat and ask how everything works, but don’t take bananas with you - that’s a bad idea.
Number Three - Welding
I taught myself to weld, and it’s one of the best things a young man can learn. There’s three main types of welding: Stick, MIG and TIG. My suggestion is start with stick and learn how to do that before you move onto anything else.
Why?
It’s the original style, and if you can do that you can do the other styles.
With some practice and knowledge, you’ll be able to build things out of metal, fix stuff around the house, and if you’re good - you can go off to make some serious money welding pipelines, pressure vessels and other fancy shit. A young man with a trade in welding can go make $250k a year in the mines without a problem. Now that’s some pretty good money for a lad in his twenties.
If I could go back to being 18 again, I would get a trade in welding without a doubt. Not only is it fucking awesome melting steel and building things with your hands - but it’s infinitely useful and will always make you money because it is a very valuable skill.
Number Four - Rigging
Working with cranes and chains and lifting heavy shit - sound like fun?
I’ve never been a rigger, but I’ve done rigging as part of my job. The tickets ain’t too hard to get, just pay the money and do the courses. You’ll find work easily, especially in the cities.
What can you make?
Around $100k a year, maybe a little less or maybe a little more depending on how good you are. The main reason you’d wanna get these tickets and the experience to go with them is because, if you hustle, it can land you a job working offshore on Oil Rigs or other offshore settings - which pay very well.
Then you can work around the world for six months of the year, travel with a pocket full of cash, and have a good ol time doing whatever the fuck you want.
What better way for a young man to experience the world?
Number Five - High Pressure Water Blasting
I didn’t know this existed until I started Commercial Diving, but it does, and it pays well.
Also known as Hydro Demolition - you use extreme high pressure water jets to destroy structures, clean stuff and blast away whatever you’ve been asked to blast away. I used to know a guy that did this for a living and he was far from broke.
In fact, he was doing extremely well for a 25 year old fella.
Started out on the bottom and worked his way up to one of the higher paying positions, which anyone with some ambition and common sense can do. The ticket for this skill costed me $350, the equivalent to an average night out on the town chasing pussy.
I’ve only used my ticket underwater to clean marine growth, but after doing my homework I have learnt that you can get high paying work on land all over Australia - and some of the companies don’t even require the ticket. All you gotta do is make the phone call, convince them to give you the job and give them what they want.
It’s filthy, hard and dangerous just like everything else on this list - but you’re not here to play it safe - and you wouldn’t be reading my work if you were.
Number Six - Rope Access Works
If you don’t like heights, find something else. But if you’re not bothered by being suspended in the air while working, and you like making money - go do your research. Rope access tickets cost a bit, maybe about $2000 AUD per level, but you can make exceptional money if you have them.
This job requires you to have at least the first level ticket before you can start work - then as you log experience and hours, you can move up levels to make more money. Just like rigging, this skill will open doors to higher paying gigs in the offshore Oil & Gas industry, along with a handful of other lucrative industries.
It’s still cheaper than University, and you’ll be making money off the bat. The work itself involves anything that needs to be done at heights - high-rise window cleaning, building inspections, repairs and rescues - stuff along those lines.
Number Seven - Truck Driving
Trucks, the backbone of the Australian economy. When you think of truck driving, you probably don’t have anything glamorous come to your mind.
Just a bunch of rough looking dudes with beards, in shorts and singlets, driving road trains and turning kangaroos into motherfucking fertiliser. There’s nothing glamorous about it - but it pays boys - and that’s what matters.
If you took trucks away from the roads of this country, you’d stop the economy. So being able to drive them gives you the opportunity to make a buck whenever you need to.
I have no idea what the tickets or the training cost, but I doubt it’s expensive - maybe a couple g’s at the most. Then it’ll just be you and the road, rolling along in ten tonnes of steel, plastic and grease. You don’t need anything fancy to get started making money. Something as simple as truck driving will do just fine.
Number Eight - Any Skilled Trade.
Listen up, fellas.
One of the dumbest things I did as a young man, was quit an apprenticeship right at the end. I was learning a highly skilled trade that paid - and because I was having issues with some assholes at work, I decided that I’d had enough. Threw the towel in and moved on.
Fucking dumb.
If the man I am now, could go back in time, I’d go back in time and fix those cunts with a crowbar to the kneecap - then finish my apprenticeship with another crew.
Why?
Because nothing beats having a skilled trade that you can always use to make money, especially when times get tough. I don’t care what ideas you have in your head. This is the truth.
Nothing is better for a young man than having a valuable trade under his belt.
I recommend, if you are willing to invest the time and effort - to get yourself a trade because it will teach you a lot of things that are essential to success. You’ll learn discipline, how to stick something out, how to deal with men, how to overcome sticking points in learning a new skill, and you will make some fucking good coin at the end of it all.
I used to make $100 an hour, cash in hand, just to do simple electrical work before I was even qualified. I was killing it without even having the trade. So the money is there, all you have to do is grab your balls and go get it.
Carpentry, welding, plumbing, diesel fitting, electrical, concreting, sprinkler fitting, plastering, brick laying, motherfucking fake grass installing - learn something that takes time to learn and you’ll reap the rewards for the rest of your life. And if the boys on the job wanna give you a genuinely hard time over nothing, if somebody wants to bite at your ankles, bully or belittle you.
Please don’t do what young Maverick did, and quit.
Just stick your Stanley knife against their throat and tell em momma’s not gonna be happy when she finds out her boy has to eat through a straw for the next six months because you broke his fucking jaw in nineteen places - and that’s the number one benefit of getting a trade - you grow balls.
Because the apprentice always gets a hard time, but not every apprentice learns how to handle it. That’s just how it is.
I hope this gets read by all the young guns out there, who are not sure if they need a degree or not, to make money.
You don’t fellas.
“To make money in this world: you need balls, common sense, a work ethic, and the ability to get along with other men”
If you can meet those requirements, you can earn anything from $100k a year to $500k a year. And that’s a great start to a young man’s life. The money can be used to travel the world, acquire assets, snort coke out of a strippers snatch, or buy a bunch of useless shit.
It’s up to you what you do with it.
Thanks for reading, and have a bloody good day.
~ Maverick Brenton
Filed under · Motivation
