When Steve finished high school he got a job assembling a building for a flight simulator at a military base. After that he went to work as an insulator at an oil plant of a large corporation at the age of 18. While at the oil plant he met a friend of his that was working at the plant as a summer student operator. He saw how good operators had it compared to contractors and laborers and quickly figured it was a better thing to be doing in life. He inquired about the training and education that one had to have to be a Stationary Engineer and determined that if regular folks could do it, so could he.

Steve investigated all that was required to become a Power Engineer and went for it. He went to S.A.I.T. for 5 months and got his 4^th class certificate. He got a job as a work experience student and then was offered a summer job at 19 years of age. While working found out about correspondence courses he could work on while on shift to gain higher levels of certification. He liked that. Earn while you learn. And the earnings were good too.

The attraction for Steve was it was a cleaner job than most others, more of a mental challenge than a physical one, compared to being an insulator. His thoughts were, " Why wish about what you want when all you have to do is apply yourself?"

After his summer job there was nothing available in operations so he got a job with his employer as a safety watch. During the short time as a safety watch there was an incident where he and another employee performed admirably and so he was offered a job in operations as a casual employee. Four months later he was on as a full time employee with the large corporation. Things were moving a little slowly at that time as it relates to jobs in the area where he lived.

When Steve first got his job the work environment was kind of a family orientated one. It was more than just a job. It was a serious career that he felt good about inside. Steve and of the guys from work would hang out on their days off. Sometimes they’d jump on the motorcycles and go for a tour down to Montana. Other times they’d go fishing or camping. In fact they still do it today, even though Steve and others work at different locations now.

Steve still enjoys his career after 17 years in the business. Even Steve’s girlfriend wants to quit nursing and get involved in Stationary Engineering. It’s just so much more rewarding than so many other career directions, professions, trades or, otherwise.

When Steve goes out to get a car or some kind of toy he always buys new. So far he has acquired a Nissan 300ZX twin turbo. He wasn’t quite satisfied with just 300 horse power in this thing so he added on a few items to boost it up to over 400 horse power. He bought himself a new Kawasaki ZX9 Ninja 900 motorcycle and he has a new MXZ 583 Skidoo as well as a new Dodge Ram 4X4.

These days Steve has his own company and is working as a Stationary Engineer on contract with a small outfit. He is doing well financially and wants to expand his business in the future. He still likes what he is doing and is basically his own boss. He enjoys the independence and with that comes enthusiasm in what he does. He does investing through his business to reduce taxes and increase profits.