Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.

What saying or quote sticks with you since you were a newbie?

RayWohlfarth
RayWohlfarth Member Posts: 1,673

When i was a first year apprentice, I made a mistake on a job site. I mis-measured a piece of pipe I was threading. I told my journeyman, "I made a mistake."

He looked at him and said, "Its not a mistake until you walk away from it." I smiled and redid the pipe. It's funny how I still think about that saying some four decades later and can't remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday. I have used that saying with my employees too. Just curious what you heard when you first started that has stuck with you for your career.

Ray

Ray Wohlfarth
Boiler Lessons
Intplm.ShiverMEtimbers

Comments

  • PC7060
    PC7060 Member Posts: 1,521

    “perfect is the enemy of good”

    delcrossvCLamb
  • jesmed1
    jesmed1 Member Posts: 872
    edited January 11

    Measure twice, cut once.

    Also, why is there never enough time to do it right, but there's always enough time to go back and do it over again?

  • ratio
    ratio Member Posts: 3,819

    "If you don't get caught, it's the same as not doing it."

    That's stuck with me for basically ever; not as a motto, but more like a touchstone to see if I'm doing the right thing.

  • pecmsg
    pecmsg Member Posts: 5,512

    $hit Happens. Now don’t do it again!

  • retiredguy
    retiredguy Member Posts: 990

    There may not be enough time to do it right but there is always enough time to it again. My favorite that I told everyone was that if you always tell the customer the truth you won't have to remember what you said.

  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 23,816

    It’s amazing what you can accomplish when no one is watching

    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
    PC7060
  • MikeL_2
    MikeL_2 Member Posts: 516

    " Perfect practice makes perfect ".

    " Failing to prepare is preparing to fail".

    By the late great John Wooden.

  • Intplm.
    Intplm. Member Posts: 2,318

    "If you have time to do it wrong, you have time to do it right. So do it right."

    "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine"

  • HVACNUT
    HVACNUT Member Posts: 6,454
    edited January 11

    "I forgot what you don't even know yet."

    "Don't fix it before you get there."

  • PDTech
    PDTech Member Posts: 10
    PC7060
  • mikedo
    mikedo Member Posts: 235

    as a plumber. payday comes on friday, **** runs downhill and dont bite your finger nails

    PC7060ShiverMEtimbers
  • TKPK
    TKPK Member Posts: 70
    edited January 11

    answers are free

    Answers that require thought $5

    Correct answers, priceless


    similar vein…opinions are like assh0les

    PC7060
  • ShiverMEtimbers
    ShiverMEtimbers Member Posts: 5

    Working at my step dad's jobber shop I heard him drop some good ones that years later come to mind regularly (RIP).

    When someone was slinging a load of BS to avoid taking responsibility, "Flush that load twice—its a long way to the cafeteria."

    "Opinions are like A$$h0les—don't show me yours and I won't show you mine."

    "You have a bright future—and so will the rest of us if that goes boom!"

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 11,145

    You're paying for the 20 years not the 15 minutes.

    ShiverMEtimberskcopp
  • delcrossv
    delcrossv Member Posts: 1,564

    Proper planning prevents piss poor performance.

    Trying to squeeze the best out of a Weil-McLain JB-5 running a 1912 1 pipe system.
    ShiverMEtimbers
  • ethicalpaul
    ethicalpaul Member Posts: 6,978

    ”this fix is only temporary—unless it works”

    NJ Steam Homeowner.
    Free NJ and remote steam advice: https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/new-jersey-steam-help/
    See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el

    delcrossv
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 17,490

    "You Can't Fix Stupid!" which I first heard from @Firedragon .

    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
    LRCCBJdelcrossvDan FoleyEdTheHeaterMan
  • leonz
    leonz Member Posts: 1,372

    MY well driller after driving 92 foot of well casing-

    "I hit bedrock at 92 feet" UH HUH.

    292 feet later he found water and the well pushed 270 feet of water up the casing until the well collapsed up to the casing.

    No running water for 7 months made life extremely difficult but not impossible.

  • mikedo
    mikedo Member Posts: 235

    we do it nice because we do it twice

    PC7060delcrossv
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 16,848

    " If it is worth doing its worth overdoing"

    From a former co-worker

  • DCContrarian
    DCContrarian Member Posts: 809

    If you're not measuring you're guessing.

  • neilc
    neilc Member Posts: 2,912

    only takes one "oh sh!t" to wipe out 10 "attaboys"

    known to beat dead horses
    delcrossvratioEdTheHeaterMan
  • Intplm.
    Intplm. Member Posts: 2,318

    "Steam is a gas that always wants to be a liquid" Quoting this has explained so much to so many over the years.

    Thank you @DanHolohan . I believe this is a quote I read in one of your articles many years ago.

  • Robertw
    Robertw Member Posts: 33

    The time less " lefty loosey Righty tighty"

    Robert W.

    Energy Kinetics

  • Mad Dog_2
    Mad Dog_2 Member Posts: 7,622

    "Everything you touch turns to S—-t!!"

    From a brutal foreman that would throw wrenches and the coffee you got him AT you...if he felt like it. It took me a year to please him, then he treated me like his son. Most apprentices quit or he laid them off immediately. Lesson: The harsher & meaner they are, the harder I bring it...Served me well. Mad Dog

  • DanHolohan
    DanHolohan Member, Moderator, Administrator Posts: 16,608

    Thanks!

    Retired and loving it.
  • RayWohlfarth
    RayWohlfarth Member Posts: 1,673

    I love these saying Thanks

    Ray Wohlfarth
    Boiler Lessons
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 25,262

    A bit late to the party…

    "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome"

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • Steve Minnich
    Steve Minnich Member Posts: 2,837

    Dollar waiting on a dime. Me, being the dime.

    Or, what the &@$? Is so hard about that!? Pushes me away and shows me again.

    Steve Minnich
  • Intplm.
    Intplm. Member Posts: 2,318

    "Screw the screws back into where they came from so they don't get lost"

    delcrossv
  • TonKa
    TonKa Member Posts: 105

    Everything takes longer than you think, including thinking.

    delcrossv