ReplyTwilli is second generation, also have family members in the business across the country. I truly enjoy this business and the freedom it affords me and the financial rewards are good as well.Originally Posted by martlet
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Just wondering... the pro I am using tells me he is a second generation HVAC tech - having learned the trade from his Dad. The company he works with also is a father and son business. How many pros on this board are also second generation? Any idea why it continues to be a family business?
Thanks
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Twilli is second generation, also have family members in the business across the country. I truly enjoy this business and the freedom it affords me and the financial rewards are good as well.
No Heat No Cool You need Action Fast
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2nd generation here too. My dad started it in 1981 when I was 10. Right now my 11 yr old works summers with me & says he'd like to go into it too.
Life is like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today might burn your ass tomorrow.
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nope im the first and my son worked with me for awhile but he wonted to haul hay with his buddys and that is ok with me
it will help him from getting a beer belly prematurely
I dont warranty Tinkeritus
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And gray hair, hemorrhoids, ulcers, migraines, drug addiction, wore out knees, bad back, and best of all if he don't get into this business, it will keep his family and friends from thinking he is rich and him having to be Santa all year round.my son worked with me for awhile but he wanted to haul hay with his buddy's and that is that is ok with me, it will help him from getting a beer belly prematurely
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Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards" ~ Vernon Law
"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." ~ John Wooden
"When the teachers become unteachable we're all in trouble" ~ Mr. Bill
"Remember "Pro" is only a name, it's not always a mindset determined to do everything correctly" ~ Mr. Bill
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Wow,
You just may be somewhat Human. I'm shocked by your normal response to a question. Not technical but hey there is hope for you yet. Not likely but just my .02 cents.
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First generation here teaching my daughter to stop wanting to run off with my meters and gauges, become a wall street stock broker instead. She's only 1, so there's hope.....
If everything was always done "by the book"....the book would never change.
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My dad started the company in 1978 when I was 2. I started working with him every summer when I was 10. For me the decision was easy b/c I new everyone wants to be cool and warm and I would always have a job.Not only doI work for my dad's company, My younger brother is another tech for dad, and our younger brother is about to graduate from tech school as well.
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Sometimes Twilli forgets and almost acts human
No Heat No Cool You need Action Fast
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Uncle taught me the trade ,it was my first job 14 yrs old and my father was having me hangin out during the summers .Back then it was for baseball card mo ney.
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3rd generation for me.
my grandfather [fathers stepfather] learned refrigeretion in the sea-bees during WW-2, spent many yrs as factory sercice rep for several companies then started his own business doing mostly residential refrigeration.
1973 he retired and my father started his own business, hvac and commercial refrigeration. thank god no residential refrigeration...
he retired in 1993 and i took over business with my brother.
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Make sure they do a manual J. Oops, sorry wrong thread.
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I am second generation. Some of the earliest memories I have of me and my dad are going on service calls and carrying his tools ("oh, you have a helper today...blah blah blah). He never pressured or suggested I go into the trade, it just really interested me.
Plus I like the money.
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Great grand father delivered coal and ice,grand father ran PHILLY NAVY YARD during WWII and designed plumbing and heating on Battleship 62 THE NEW JERSEY,father helped figure out Legionaires Diease. Brother passed away hanging ductwork at a school last year,worked for my sister's HVAC firm,brother gones around consulting to HVAC firms. and I won COMFORTECH IDOL last year. I got out of it for 2 year's after we sold the company to a utility and came back to run an area for the company I am at now.
It's NOT the BRAND,it's the company that installs it!!!!!
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Like other's in this forum I too started carrying my Dad's tools during summer vacation. Not much of a vacation but I always looked forward to lunches out with Dad. I remember this one house every year that my Dad would grab my arm and squeeze tightly wispering in my ear. " Don't spill any oil on the floor and keep your mouth shut". I hated this house because Dad was always watching me like a hawk here. Now here's the Kicker. I actually married this Customer's Daughter. Yeah you heard me. The Lady that made me quiver is my Mother in Law. She still loves me LOL.
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Great grandfather developed a rotary engine prototype for refrigeration. Grandfather ran an ice house across the Depression (and fed the family with some nice food while questionable folks used the ice house to store their booty), helped build the Boston Garden liquid ammonia rink cooling system. Uncle and cousins were pipe-fitters for clean-rooms built around 128 in the Greater Boston during the 70's integrated circuit boom.
I became one of those damned engineers I always heard about from my grandfather and uncle and ended the cycle... C'est la vie. But I fondly remember helping my grandfather carrying tools, threading iron pip, and sweating copper. Still use his acetylene torch now and then. I still appreciate his patience with me while I asked endless questions.
I stay away from that which I don't have the skills. As Clint Eastwood said, "A man's got to know his limitations."
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My dad hardly could fix a thing. I fix everything for family. I wish dad could have taught me, but I just associated with fix it guys when I was young. I don,t believe it's genetic, if thats what your wondering.
It,s training and experience. Some guys are lucky to have dads train them young.
But dads and sons differ on the old ways, training prevailes.
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My Dad ran quality control for Lennox Southwest plant for 30 years until they closed around 1990. The HS6 we installed in ~1973 is still humming right along.
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It's funny how our dads influenced us even if they didn't mean to or we didn't even realize it. My dad owned a big construction co. and everyone thought I would go to work there. I wanted to be a mechanic and did and was good at it but wanted something more. I decided I wanted to be an electrician and my dad encouraged me and I did it for 15 years. One day I decided I wanted to do something more and my dad encouraged me and I moved on to a facilities manager position. That industry fell flat 5 yrs later and that plant closed. I went on to a company that was involved in energy efficiency and learned a lot but at that point I wanted to open my own co. and my dad encouraged me and I did. It's been 3 years now and going ok.
I'm starting to ramble here but when I go to my dads to help him with projects now because he's getting older he says to me "youre too damned picky" but I learned that from him, along with many other things that made him successful. At an event recently in his honor the saying on the thing they give you at the door said "The difference between people that make great discoveries and people that don't is the people that do don't consider anything impossible"
I don't think I'll ever forget that.
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