I grew up in a small town in northern Canada.

Right out of high school, I started working towards my electrical certification and became an electrician in my early 20s.

My goal was always to make more money.

Since I was working in the Oilfield, this often meant 24 days straight of 12 hr shifts. Or worse, nightshift.

Not exactly a work-life balance.

But, I kept doing this all through my 20s because it was great money, and I could take months off in the year to go traveling.

Then, things took a turn for the worst…

The oilfield crashed.

The industry is always going through boom and bust cycles so I should have been ready for it but it caught me off guard.

The company I had been working at for 7 yrs was out of work.

Shit.

I took the summer off partying away all my hard earned money.

Then, I found another job in the Alberta Oil Sands. It was one of the largest sites in Canada with 1000s of workers.

I was an experienced electrician with years of experience, but that didn't matter on this site.

I was just a number.

A cog in the machine.

The money was great. I was clearing $8000/month. But It didn’t matter because I was in misery.

I found myself standing exposed on a steel structure 100' up in the air in -40 degrees Celsius doing manual labor.

It was brutal.

But, I had worked in the cold before. I had worked the night shift before. It sucked but I could handle it.

What I couldn’t handle was feeling like my work didn’t matter.

I wanted to live a life of purpose and meaning and this certainly was not it.

Then, I caught a break.

I was in my jail cell (camp room) and I got a call from an old friend that I had worked with previously and he said I should apply for a job opening.

It was a project manager role at a great company.

I took the job and have been in a warm cozy office ever since.

Looking back to those days in the cold, I realize that it gave me the character that I have today.

I learned to be uncomfortable and push the limits of my mind and body.

I also learned that when you work for someone else, you don’t have control over your job security.

Even with years of hard work, you could easily end up back at the bottom of the totem pole or without a job.

I am grateful for this experience and everything that it taught me.

Now, it’s time to build something on the internet from my WARM home office and share everything I learn with you.

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Talk Soon,

Stephen “freezing my ass off” Hanna

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P.S. I was planning on writing these emails more frequently but have been slacking. No excuses but I’ll try to stick to one per week minimum.

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P.S.S. Here’s the best podcast I listened to this week.

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