Any profession your Dad preached at you as a teenager to never do?

[NitroM3]

I am first and foremost a military brat. I was suppose to go into the Militantly but I have less then 20/20 vision, so that sucks no jets for me. However I did get conflict experience for 3 years and got tossed out of the back of a C130 several times in strange places. My parents said that going into the Automotive industry was not going to be a good secure future. They wanted me to pursue if not the military my first interest to became a Paleontologist (long, long before Jurassic park) hmmmm, so I went with automotive. Ya sucks because all that hard work for several decades my parents must have been right. NOT! I currently own and live in a DelWeb built community Sun City with a Golf course and 2 complete club houses with fitness centers and swimming pool hot tubs and restaurants. These days now I am sorta semi retired and still collecting , royalties, and other incomes from a few products I engineered and developed for after market Performance being sold through a dozen retail outlets here in US, England, Australia and Germany. Now had I pursued being a "DIGGER" I would likely have skin cancer, back problems, and still working in some museum just getting old.

 

[1uz_4me]

He said not to follow him on to retail. I've been at it for 22yrs.

 

[Kiwi_ME]

My dad was an astrophysicist and would not let me become a motorcycle mechanic as I wanted, insisting I attend university. My only choice in the matter was whether that was electrical or mechanical engineering. It didn't take me long before I realised that it was the right career path.

 

[Motu]

My father was a mechanic, and always told us never to be mechanics - so my brother and I both are...and a couple of cousins. One bit of advice I did take was not to work on family vehicles and don't do ''homers''. I learnt that one pretty quick - if you want me to fix your car, bring it to work and I'll charge you the going rate.

 

[Ws6]

My Dad was a merchant marine, when he finished that he went on to work in restaurants, nearly 50 years. He worked every day until he died in his late 70s. Dad was a very hard working man. Typically worked breakfast, lunch, and dinner. His work ethic was incredible.

Dad preached to me most every day as a teen to stay away from two professions:

Working in a restaurant and sales.

His thought was the restaurant business was thankless. Work every night, weekend and holiday. Put up with some not so nice customers..... he preached non-stop to never work in a restaurant.

Dad also was powerfully persuasive to never be in sales. His thought was anyone can sell, and no job security, no matter how good one was at sales. Not sure I technically agree with his views on this, but I understand where he was coming from.

Any professions your Dad told you sternly to stay away from?

No, but he did say he worked hard and if I could use my brain instead of my hands, or rather not just my hands, life could be easier. He was right, and wrong.

 

[JWC86]

My dad was a mechanic and told me not to go down that path. He did teach me lots about working on cars. He had his own shops and had a great reputation for “doing things right” which I always found odd because he was possibly the worst for maintaining his own cars. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do a oil change or any maintenance for that part. Drove everything into the ground.

I’m the opposite. I maintain my vehicles over and above. He says that’s because I don’t have to do it for a living. I think he’s right because after a day of working on cars I’m glad I don’t do it everyday and have respect for the people that do. Always go out of my way to thank the techs and clean my vehicles inside and out before I take them to a shop.

Myself I was lined up to be a mechanical engineer and backed out last minute to go work on the “oil rigs”. I moved on to “downhole tools” and have no regrets.

 

[DriveHard]

Not my father, but my mother...her grandfather owned an auto repair shop, and as I grew older and clearly had a knack for cars, she begges me to never go into the auto repair business...never be a mechanic.

 

[dadto2]

My parents never discouraged me from any career choices. Well, dad thought the Army was a good idea, but mom explicitly forbade that. At the time I thought she was being snooty, but as an adult I realize that my father has some pretty severe PTSD from Viet Nam, and my mother would not allow that to happen to her kids. Don't blame her one bit.

Both parents insisted on college, even if it's only for an associates degree. They firmly believed that education is necessary for a well rounded life, even if it's not directly related to a career path. I agree with that as well.

Ultimately, I got a BS in business admin, and have been working in IT ever since. Early on I was intent on rising through the management ranks, but a few years into my career I realized that I'm a very good technician and really don't have an interest in management. I get all the job satisfaction I need as an IT analyst, and very little of the stress of management. And it leaves time for all the volunteer work I do. Scoutmaster, Cubmaster, I also help organize some charity bike rides locally. I'm very satisfied with the way things are going.

 

[UncleDave]

My Dad was a merchant marine, when he finished that he went on to work in restaurants, nearly 50 years. He worked every day until he died in his late 70s. Dad was a very hard working man. Typically worked breakfast, lunch, and dinner. His work ethic was incredible.

Dad preached to me most every day as a teen to stay away from two professions:

Working in a restaurant and sales.

His thought was the restaurant business was thankless. Work every night, weekend and holiday. Put up with some not so nice customers..... he preached non-stop to never work in a restaurant.

Dad also was powerfully persuasive to never be in sales. His thought was anyone can sell, and no job security, no matter how good one was at sales. Not sure I technically agree with his views on this, but I understand where he was coming from.

Any professions your Dad told you sternly to stay away from?

Grandpa was a farmer, Olds and Oliver dealer - Dad hated that work and preached it was all bad to me. (farming, sales, service)

I think everyone should work in a restaurant once just to understand and appreciate how hard it is. You learn real quick in that business you want to be the owner, not the cook.

As for sales I make/ made an incredible living from it, and trust me everyone cannot do it.

People dont understand professional sales at all, and always think retail which is really the lowest form of the craft.

They never think about the Boeing salesman closing a 100 plane deal to United, or manufacturers rep doing 10M a year to select clients.

Sales is one of the last frontiers where the income is unlimited and all you have to be is good at it.

 

[Job]

Nothing at all said such as you should or could be this or that.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

One told me to never join the military as he had seen enough casualties with their screams and grotesque wounds. He was even kind enough to show me the photographs (they were taken for training purposes). You know things like US Marine who's missing a leg and his buttocks because he stepped on a landmine.

The other one told me to stay out of apparel sales because it was a dying business and my personality wasn't cut out for it.

 

[PandaBear]

The other one told me to stay out of apparel sales because it was a dying business and my personality wasn't cut out for it.

My dad, a real estate agent, once told me that "personality matches" between the sales and the customers are VERY important. Sometimes one kind of salesman can connect with a certain kind of customers better than others, and that's why if something doesn't work out between one rep it is important to refer the customers to another to see if they can salvage the sales.

 

[vwmaniaman]

Parents wanted me to go through college at ASU in electronic Engineering. I did 2 years and had to leave and get a job to support wife and new kid. Worked in electronics at Motorola for 10 years. Moved family now 4 to midwest and managed a tv shop for a motorola service center. Did that 3-4 years got an offer to do XRay repairs and installation for Philips. Did that the next 32 years and retired. Enjoyed the Xray job all the time since everyday was a different challenge and allowed me to travel the world. Parents ended up being happy about my job.

 

[97prizm]

To an extent auto repair but when I worked at a Lexus Dealership the seasoned mechanics could pull down 60k plus a year. Ferrari and Bentley mechanics were pulling down over $100k a year.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Brain surgeon or a fry cook.

 

[Warlord]

Both parents worked in factories and wanted me to do something else. I worked in factories as well to pay my way through school but then leveraged my education into something with more job security. A couple years after I left most of the factories back home had closed up so I was thankful they pushed me to move on.

 

[clinebarger]

Not my father, but my mother...her grandfather owned an auto repair shop, and as I grew older and clearly had a knack for cars, she begges me to never go into the auto repair business...never be a mechanic.

My father & his father were mechanics & I followed down that path, I see many fathers have said never be a Mechanic going by the responses here .....

I love being a Mechanic, With the right Facilities, Tools, & Equipment.....It's a pretty easy gig.

 

[GON]

My father & his father were mechanics & I followed down that path, I see many fathers have said never be a Mechanic going by the responses here .....

I love being a Mechanic, With the right Facilities, Tools, & Equipment.....It's a pretty easy gig.

Maybe the "training, teaching, coaching, and mentorship" you received from your Father has been the difference in your happiness in your job. Sense many mechanics are not getting mentorship from a younger age about working as a auto mechanic.

 

[Shel_B]

I was never told not to do something, rather, in one way or another, I was encouraged to try many things. My entire family was independent business people, doctor, inventor ... as an early teenager I was advised to "create a need and fill it," and to one degree or another, I followed that advice. Had some failures, some great successes ... travelled a lot and had some fun and exciting adventures.

 

[Creekside]

I don’t think my parents really supported my focus on the trucking and mechanics industries. They came around in high school when we did very well in the Ford/AAA contest. I make very good money now and I’m basically their operations manager for the beef cattle operation, I’m the heavy equipment operator for the farm, own a towing company and just built a full size dump truck at 25 years old. All of this while working a second shift job in industrial maintenance. They definitely appreciate my skills now.