Re: FN-FORUM: Todays projects

date posted 24th August 2004 17:44


On 24 Aug 2004, at 17:47, Aaron Brailsford wrote:

> A friend just popped over (must tidy up more often, was a touch=20
> embarassing.. but then, working 9am-2am, when do you get time to tidy=20=

> up?) - her bloke does work on various cars as a 'sideline' - his=20
> biggest earner is rebuilding carburettors - =A3100 a pop, and it takes=20=

> him an hour. I can only dream of =A3100 an hour :/

True story: a friend of my dad in australia has a car smash repair=20
business in a big tin shed on an industrial estate. years ago, he built=20=

a race car for a friend. he did this at night, because building race=20
cars is fun and a bit of a laugh, and it's the crappy smash repair jobs=20=

that pay the bills...

turns out this guy is particularly good at building race cars. so=20
people started to ask him to build them a car. so he built better=20
classes of car, etc., etc. and he was good at that too.

it got the point where the level of cars he was building cost a hell of=20=

a lot of money (ie, hundreds of thousands and up). so he'd tell people=20=

"it'll cost more than you think. so that i know you're serious, send me=20=

a blank cheque. i'll fill it out. if it cashes, i'll build you a car."

i've seen the blank cheques. (i've also seen ripped up blank cheques=20
from when he didn't want to build that person a car, regardless of the=20=

money involved.) i've watched the resulting cars being built...

but you know what? he still thought of it as a hobby, and wouldn't give=20=

up the day jobs of basic smash repairs - unbending panels and fixing=20
paint scratches and that stuff, and getting paid relative peanuts from=20=

9-5.

i'm sure there's a lesson there - i have no idea what it is.

...j=