This YouTube interview ("Growing Up In The Automotive Industry") features conversational recollections from people who grew up in a family automotive/tire business. Key points: the primary speaker began working in his dad's tire shop around ages 14–15 in Wallaceburg, Ontario, doing car, truck and forklift tires and operating as an early mobile tech; he was later accepted to Canadian 'fire college' but postponed it to work and ultimately stayed in the automotive industry, noting strong early wages (mentions of roughly $7/hour minimum wage at the time) and high income ceiling for committed workers. The video closes with host Chris Collins’ outro, a phone tipline (8333-ASK SDR) and a promotions URL (offers.chriscollinsinc.com).
Questions this video answers
July 12, 2022
Wallaceburg, Ontario
About 14–15 years old
Fire college (Canadian firefighter training college)
8333-ASK SDR
Chapters
You know, a lot of people say, well, I've been in the car business. I grew up in the carpet. Well, I literally grew up in the business. I'm 6, 7, 8 years old. I'm at the shop already, you know, maybe only pushing a broom, but I thought I was, you know, walking the talking. One of the boys of that age. Right. So that just kind of really, it just snowballed after that. I mean it's.
So did you start working on cars after that?
No. So it's. Well, my dad ended up getting a tire shop as well. So I was 15 years old working in this tire shop and we did all sorts of tires. We did car tires, we did truck tires.
Were you like riding them up and fixing them kind of everything?
No, this time I was just writing. I was just fixing them. So I'm 15 years old doing transport truck tires. And then my dad got into this forklift tire. He added a forklift part of the business to it. And I'm 15 years old driving around Wallaceburg, Ontario and a five speed Ford F150 going to these factories in Wallaceburg, taking out forklift tires, bring them back.
So you're a mobile tech?
Yeah, well, way before it was popular.
Way before. So, you know, we mobile, we go to town, we take the forklift tires up.
What does your dad pay? What are the. I'm not, I'm not sure what the laws are in Canada about child labor, but. What was your, what was your dad. I'm sure there's a statute of limitations. You're not going to get him in trouble. But was he paying you a fair wage or was it. You were part of the family business and you just went to work?
Well, the, the Texaco gas station. I got clean rags every day, my pocket.
You got what?
Clean rag every day from my pocket.
That was the pay.
That's. That was my pay. Was learning the ropes.
If you had to come back, you had to use a dirty rag, but.
You got dinner, room and board.
That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So. But at the tire shop you own, I. Minimum wage back then was like seven bucks an hour. So I was. No, to me, seven bucks an hour at 14, 15 years old. That's a gold mine for a kid like that. Most of my buddies weren't even working.
Oh yeah, well, minimum wage when I started working was 4, 4 25.
425 too.
Yeah.
But Canada is a little different. So would you go to school and then work after school?
Yeah, so.
I did the usual. I just, I, I tried to Venture a little bit on my own. I started cutting grass in the summertime. I had like, 13 lawns. But being like 14, 15 years old, like, it's way too hot to cut lawns. Besides that, I miss being in the shop with my dad too. So that kind of fizzled out. And I went back to working with my dad. And then, you know, just the interest in the business started coming along. And then he started introducing. I started watching the way he interacted with the customers because he was starting to venture from being the technician into the management side of it. So for me, it's. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to be a mechanic at the time. I just. I knew that I wanted to be in the business. I knew I loved it. The paychecks were always really good, you know, and that ventured off. I finished high school, and it's like.
I got accepted to fire college. And I thought to myself, you know, I'm just gonna take a year off.
What's fire college?
So in Canada, it's to be a firefighter. They have actual college that literally trains you to be a firefighter. And I got accepted. That was what I wanted to be. You know, growing up at this kind of my. In the back of my brain, I wanted to be a firefighter. But still, the. The business was still at the forefront. Yeah, I just. I felt like, I'll take the year off, save some money up, and then I'll make my decision now.
Now, like most kids in Canada, you're also huge into beach volleyball. Did you ever consider a career in that?
I have a body for a beach volleyball player. For sure.
You meant hockey.
So. So this. This kind of starts to bring us to our story, and to the point is you, like most of us, decided to forego college for a minute to work a year. So you're like, I'm gonna take a year and I'm gonna work. And then you never ended up going to college. Cause you made more money than all your friends that graduated college.
This is the thing, like, take the year off. You're making buttloads of money at that age. 17, 18 years old. Lube tech. You know, your buddies don't. They're all in school. Yeah, you're right. You don't have jobs, but you had the money on that Friday night to go out and party and do your. Do your extracurricular activities. Right? And my buddies didn't have that money. So. Yeah, just the business. Just it. I'm telling you, it just wraps you and it's hard not to love the business. It really is just for me, it's. I just. You can never get enough. And there's. The ceiling in this business is so high, you work your butt off that just. There's nothing you can't accomplish in this business. And the income could be astronomical.
Yeah. And so the first point that we have is the thing that you realized early on that we all did is you can create your own path in this business, that if you work harder, you're more committed, you end up, you know, just kind of moving up and being. Being successful by default.
Yeah. I think for me.
I had a pretty good path laid out for me by being able to.
Follow my dad's shadow growing up as a kid. Right. And it's. I think we all get, you know, we all follow that path and we get. We're in that shadow for so long and, you know, and I think it really gives us guidance.
Yeah. For sure.
What we want to do. Right. And it's. That's kind of where I feel like today when I look back, man, it's been a really good run, and I learned a lot of lessons.
It's so interesting to have your dad on here with you. I'm dying to meet your dad, actually. All the conversations are all the things that you've said about your dad. I would love to meet him.
Thanks so much for watching this clip.
Of Service Driver Revolution.
We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333-ASK SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.com chriscollinsinc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.
