I have been involved with one type or another of electrical work since 1966. I was radio radar and electrical technician on the A7 aircraft during the Vietnam War. I was first trained in electronics, and I have quite a unique education which I have tried to pass on since then. I spent two years working in consumer electronics; radios, TVs and appliances. I worked on the B-1 aircraft, the L 1011 jetliner and the space shuttle. In 1979 I started my own business, and in 1983, I applied for and got my contractors license, and I have been an electrical contractor ever since. I’ve seen this business go up and down and up and down and up and down again and I have seen one thing that is a true fact that will never change. The world has gone electric, and it will become increasingly more and more electric. Gas of any sort is a limited energy source which will never become cheaper, it will always become more expensive and the solar, battery, wind, hydroelectric, thermonuclear sources of power will always be where the power is coming from. The difference between talent and skill shows itself in things like any electrician with skill can install a conduit from here to there in such a way that is legal and looks neat and looks proper. An Electrician with talent will look at it and say I know that he’s building something where he’s going to add something later on I’ll install a conduit one size larger that will accommodate his future needs without having to build a separate second conduit system. On a service call, a skilled electrician will carefully take apart numerous outlets and switches looking for a failed connection, a talented electrician will look at the house, how it’s built, and what the likelihood of various different cable routing might be and go a long ways towards pinpointing where the problem is before he ever takes anything apart. These are several examples of the difference between skill and talent in this profession, there are many many more. In short I know many skilled electricians, I know two or three talented ones.
