Career journey and at what point did you decide to learn to diagnose?

I’m curious about everyone’s journeys have been in automotive and at what point did you realize the value of diagnosing and how has that journey been for you?

For me... around 2012 or 2013 I had a Colorado that had the infamous reduced power. I specifically remember it being a circuit code and every shop I took it to couldn’t figure it out. This is the first time I had found scannerdanner and truthfully, trying to learn was impossible for me at the time because I was overwhelmed with all the information and had zero background in automotive or fundamentals. I didn’t didn’t even fully understand how a voltmeter worked. Fast forward a bit and I started watching a lot of the good folks on YouTube including Paul, and while I didn’t understand much initially and I didn’t realize it at the time, I was learning, it just didn’t quite feel like it. Suddenly there was an ahah moment and it was a snowball effect of learning from there. The initial learning curve seemed daunting and like I’d never learn without paying for education but I was really determined to learn and at least be self sufficient. That transformed into me diagnosing and fixing cars of friends, family, and co-workers which led to me meeting a shop owner as I was running my other side- business woodworking (day job was for a massive corporation) I was diagnosing a no start at the time and it wasn’t a simple straight forward diagnosis. As we were speaking about my process on the vehicle I was diagnosing he asked if I would be interested in assisting at his shop. Meeting that shop owner transformed my path and allowed me the opportunity to really learn and expand at a rate that I never would have being a diy guy with a decent amount of knowledge on diagnosing. It was there that I learned that the more I knew the more I realized I what I didn’t know and I’m still in that same mindset today. I moved halfway across the country to a state more business friendly to pursue my journey of business and Entreprenuership (more like self-employed rather than a business at the moment) knowing I had the skills to make something from nothing and am currently still working toward building my vision.

Next vision I’d like to execute on would be a non-profit or charity (through community partnerships) that helps those who are getting back in their feet with reliable transportation (I’d also like to encourage and teach young adults a trade through the same venture) Even though it’s not a big luxurious dream, I really have always wanted to make an impact in a community.

I went to trade school intending to hate electronics and wishing for “the good old days”, but then my teacher showed us a SD video measuring the amperage on a fuel pump and showing where the drop outs in the motor was, and that completely changed my mindset, I just could not believe that something like that was possible. Another defining moment was a mistake I made due to misdiagnosis (not completely my fault). There was a Chevy 1500 that had a rich code for bank one, and the “tech” I was working with was like well it needs an 02 sensor and I figured he knew more than I did so we went ahead and did it still had the code. Well I didn’t mention to him that it had a misfire until after we put the sensor in. Pulled the number one spark plug out and it was fouled out, replaced it and the miss was gone and the rich code was gone. And it just kinda clicked like oh... we just did that with no testing whatsoever and it cost the customer however much for no reason. So ever since I have been learning as much as I can.