X Rigging Rings, thoughts

Levi, HST's Fear and Loathing in LV is one of the most well written books ever, imo.

Yes sir. Not a very sustainable lifestyle though! I more like the pace and tempo of Rum Diary if I were to model my life off his writing these days.
 
Cory: Maybe not (in answer to what you asked) but I do think that all successful tree guys work like that. Everyone that I've ever met, that is.
 
Well the good thing about working for yourself doing tree work is that clock watching is inverted. Instead of looking at the clock to see if the day is done I look at the clock in the hope that there is still enough time to do more work. This seems much better than spending most of your life waiting for the end of days.
 
Cory: Maybe not (in answer to what you asked) but I do think that all successful tree guys work like that. Everyone that I've ever met, that is.

Sheesh.

Well the good thing about working for yourself doing tree work is that clock watching is inverted. Instead of looking at the clock to see if the day is done I look at the clock in the hope that there is still enough time to do more work. This seems much better than spending most of your life waiting for the end of days.

So true, never quite thought of it that way.
 
I spent most of my youth travelling the world, working my way around.
It meant I never got to go to university, but as I'm happy as a clam doing what I do, who cares? ( Well, my mom did, but that is another story)

This is at the far end of the other side of the scale. It is hard for me to imagine a life lived better than the one that you gave yourself, Stig. I'm really, really happy for you.

And to Matthew, I'm really happy for you, too. You are very fortunate to have found something that you love doing so much, at such a young age. Stay safe and enjoy the journey. Best wishes,

Tim
 
Well the good thing about working for yourself doing tree work is that clock watching is inverted. Instead of looking at the clock to see if the day is done I look at the clock in the hope that there is still enough time to do more work. This seems much better than spending most of your life waiting for the end of days.

This is a great post, in my opinion. This is the way that people who love their work think, but also, as you say, those who believe that their efforts are being spent on building something for themselves. If you have skin in the game, you would naturally care more about whether an enterprise succeeds or not.

I am not an entrepreneur, but this idea has me wondering if giving workers a small, reasonable percentage of the gross receipts for each job they're involved in would give them the same "sense of ownership". Starting up ROTH IRA's for each person, into which this small amount of money from each job would be placed, might provide for a reasonable retirement. It is something they could check on and watch grow. It would tie the success of the company each and every day to their own long term success. I can't help but think that seeing a direct benefit from a high level of productivity would fire people up, in the same way as the owners of the company. Just a thought.

Tim
 
Ha Tim! Ever the optimist. It's better than your portapotties idea, but only just.
They do get a percentage of each job, it's called wages.
 
Gross receipts doesn't mean squat. If you Gross $1M, and profit $50...

I'd rather take home $xx,xxx company profit out of $100,000, than out of $600,000.

Net.

Most tree people wouldn't be motivated by such a plan. If they would be, they're more likely to get their own name on the door of their own truck. The more grunt they are, the less they will be motivated.
 
This is at the far end of the other side of the scale. It is hard for me to imagine a life lived better than the one that you gave yourself, Stig. I'm really, really happy for you.

And to Matthew, I'm really happy for you, too. You are very fortunate to have found something that you love doing so much, at such a young age. Stay safe and enjoy the journey. Best wishes,

Tim

Thank you Tim I appreciate that.
 
Gross receipts doesn't mean squat. If you Gross $1M, and profit $50...

I'd rather take home $xx,xxx company profit out of $100,000, than out of $600,000.

Net.

Most tree people wouldn't be motivated by such a plan. If they would be, they're more likely to get their own name on the door of their own truck. The more grunt they are, the less they will be motivated.
Unless you build more value into the company with intent to sell
 
Yes, Willie. But giving them an extra percentage based on gross is not necessarily the best case.

If you reinvested $200,000 in iron, from money made by a good crew, then a part of that should be considered.

If you pay them on money that pays for insurance, wages, non-building the business overhead, etc, I would think about those expenses differently.
 
Well the good thing about working for yourself doing tree work is that clock watching is inverted. Instead of looking at the clock to see if the day is done I look at the clock in the hope that there is still enough time to do more work. This seems much better than spending most of your life waiting for the end of days.

Excellently put.
 

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Actually this thread has had such an awesome derail I completely forgot which thread the derail was in, it's taken me three days to find it again!
 
I'd have said the same thing....until I started using them.

It's not so much about pushing the limits of your rigging. ..more about making the best of the situation. When I'm about to catch the top of a sketchy tree, its good to know I have things in my favor. So there's less likely hood of a mishap across the board. The spider jack use was the best analogy I could come up with. Doesn't matter to me who likes em and who doesn't. I'm just sharing my experience, that's all.


That's it... in life as in tree work.. use everything to your advantage.. details matter.. If Reg says he almost never uses blocks anymore, other than as redirects, I AM listening...
 
I know of a company that pays their employees on percentage. HUGE outfit by Philly. Doing 9 million a year I believe. It keeps the men working to keep tallying up their paycheck but they don't take kindly to equipment breakdowns and traffic jams.
 
It also can make those 3-5 man crews despise one another and point the finger at each other constantly for why they didn't earn more.
 
That is a really interesting unintended consequence. The fact that the guys get upset over equipment breakdowns to me just means that they're highly mootivated. When I made the suggestion about cutting guys in for a small percentage of the gross on a job, I was not talking about making their pay 100% dependent on it, such that if something went wrong, they mlght not eat next week. It had more to do with just providing an added incentive, so that if the crew managed to finish a job well ahead of the time bid for a job, and were then able to go on to the next one, they would benefit from that higher level of productivity.

On the issue of guys getting mad about equipment breakdowns, I once had the opportunity to speak with a guy who ran a construction job with 600 men on it. He had this to say about manpower: "The problem with good people is that they're very demanding; they always want something from you. And every once in awhile, they can make you look stupid. But if you can put up with all of that, your jobs will run much more smoothly."

I just thought I'd toss this quote in here because it relates a little to what we've been talking about. I found his sentiments profound, and I've never forgotten what he said.

Tim
 
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