If you want to make it in this increasingly complicated world, you need to know a skill.
For years I worked as a retail sales clerk, and I hated it. All of my friends had the same kind of dead-end job, so we spent our nights drinking and smoking and complaining about it. One day I met someone who convinced me that I was slumming, and if I wanted a better life I needed to learn a skill. He taught me that HVAC work is difficult and complex, and takes years to learn it. Even after you achieve an official certification, there is still years worth of on-the-job learning to be done. All that work and effort is worth it, because a certified HVAC tech can make an excellent living and never need to worry about job security. The problem with retail work is that you can be fired at any time, with no warning. Retail workers are a dime a dozen, as the saying goes. When a person is certified for HVAC work, there are so many options for employment that it doesn’t matter if you get fired. I have met several HVAC techs who work for multiple contractors at the same time. They can pick and choose who they work for, because that HVAC certification gives them the power to do so! Every home and every business in the country relies on climate control in some way. With an HVAC certification you can go anywhere, work for anyone, because you have a skill that is highly in demand.