Hard work

America is known as a place where if you work hard you can achieve a reasonably good life. Back in the 70’s I had a number of friends who were trades people. These guys were very talented and could do most things in the building industry. I recall one case where a guy who was single and about 30 years old, approached me and asked for some financial advice. He said he had older friends who suffered from knee and back injuries but had to keep working in pain because they needed the money. He said he didn’t want to spend his last ten or fifteen working years in that condition and wanted some suggestions. I asked him a lot of questions and told him I would write up a plan for him. Here is what I suggested. First of all you have to quit drinking and smoking. This guy smoked two packs a day and drank 15 cans a of beer everyday with more on weekends. I wrote that he should save that money for two years and then buy a fixer upper house. He should move in there and work on it weekends and winter. These guys were off three months in the winter when they collected unemployment. He could rehab one house each year and then either rent it out our sell it depending on market conditions. I did the calculations and showed how in ten years he would be self-employed with people working for him and how far he wanted to expand would be limited only by is ambition. This guy was about 6 feet tall and weighed about 300 pounds. He was somewhat typical in that regards because he would gain 20 pounds in the winter and then lose 10 pounds in the summer, so in ten years he gained a 100 pounds. I pointed out that with this new life style he should also adjust his diet and that along with no beer and no cigs would get his weight back to normal and improve his general health. As his business grew his attitude would improve which in turn would improve his outlook on life. I saw him a few days later and he thanked me for the information but nothing ever came of it. The hard work that I mentioned above includes a willingness to change attitude and life style and he was not willing to make those changes.