216: Ali Hameed

Welcome to the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.

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Hey, what's going on?

Automotive World.

Welcome to another episode of the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.

My name is Sean Tipping and I'll be your host once again for today's episode.

Thank you so much for joining me Today on the show.

I've got a guest joining me, ali Hamid.

Ali is a mobile technician down in Texas and he's going to share with us his story.

He's a story of coming to America.

He's originally from Iraq.

He was a translator for the army, moved here and eventually got a mobile business going down in Texas and we're going to hear the story.

Ali's a good friend of mine, super smart guy, super kind and really interesting.

So I enjoyed this quite a bit.

I know you will as well.

With that out of the way, let's jump into the episode.

All right, ali, how's it going?

Good, good.

How are you sir?

I'm doing well.

I got my butt kicked today and I guess I really have been all week, but it's part of the gig.

What was it?

What wasn't it?

I'm fighting a Subaru iSight calibration that I am having zero luck with, and just on top of that, it seems like everything I touch this week has just turned to crap.

I've got these Ford F550 BCMs that I've been fighting with and I think I kind of have them figured out because I've had the RE in the last week, 2012 to 2014,.

They were all in that range.

Are you using IDS or are you cloning?

Combination of all of the Ford tools that I have.

I've got the IOTerminal that will do some of the BCM stuff, 4scan and then IDS, and it really took a combination to make these things work, because the as-built data on Ford server is just wrong.

It's completely wrong.

You have to pull it off of the original.

Then IDS won't do it correctly.

It ends up putting in these corrupted values and you get these really weird problems if you try to do it the OE way.

These are brand new BCMs from Ford.

One of them, according to IDS, the part number is wrong and it is an updated part number.

Is what Ford said.

According to their parts catalog, it superseded the one that was in there, but IDS kicks it back.

So you can't do the PMI and there's a portion of the PMI.

Something in there has to be done in order for it to satisfy a configuration code.

It won't clear that out.

I've had that before and the only thing that I did at that time I think I told the customer to return the part back and we looked up the same part number on eBay.

We found one new on eBay and we bought it and it was good to go.

Yeah, the shop ended up finding a used one and we were pretty much able to just do a one for one clone on that thing.

Yeah, a lot of screwing around and the keys were fighting me too.

It's been a fun week the way it goes doing this mobile thing though, when you had that super, you probably thought of you know what?

is it time to rent a shop.

Do you think about it?

You're doing it mobile.

It's.

One of the things that I'm definitely considering is the environment, and I've tried several different positions within this shop, but they only have so many options for where this vehicle can be placed.

I was talking to Matt Fonslaut and I'm like the frustrating part about this is that it's very difficult for me to remove a variable with certainty.

I can say, well, I think it's the lighting, let me change the lighting.

But did I fix it?

I don't know.

I told them to put in OE glass because they had aftermarket glass in there.

They did, it's the same error.

Then Matt comes back.

He's like well, I had one that had bad OE glass.

I'm like oh, come on, matt, I thought I eliminated that.

Yeah, I wish if there was a live data or parameters, where yes or no, where at least you can go with a scan tool and look at it.

They'll make it so easy.

I don't think it's hard to make.

Honestly, I don't think it's hard for the manufacturer.

Look, we got all the way to view on live data and doing testing on modules and cars.

I don't think making a list of hey, this is what you want to have all yeses in order to do the calibration.

I don't know why they don't do it.

I think it'd be awesome, especially with these camera systems.

I just want to plug something in and see what the camera sees.

Why is it not seeing my target?

Is there some sort of distortion?

Is there some sort of weird glare that I'm not seeing?

Just let me plug in with my tablet or my phone or something and see the camera view, but they don't have anything like that.

That's the main reason why I got a shop.

It was for the ADAS, strictly for the ADAS.

Then you have a shop, why not?

Like we were talking about it today, parasitic drain.

I don't do them at the customer's location anymore.

They have to drop it.

Either that or find somebody else or some other really complicated cases where I need time, I need to focus.

I know you like music around you when you work.

I need quietness.

I tell them to drop it.

Usually I tell them, hey, you have to give me time.

I don't want you to call me ever about the car.

Next time I'll call you about it with updates.

Those, yeah, I bring them.

Plus the local people like, if they want to bring it to the shop In a real light sales poll, right, I write here go for it.

Store the mets on airestiets, sell them to customersets.

Okay it helps a lot with your scheduling like.

This is how I do it one day, like One day, I'll do all mobile and then probably two, three days the whole day in the shop, or probably I'll go do program in the morning and then go back to finish the rest at the shop.

It helps a lot.

How big of a shop is it?

1500 square feet.

Okay, you got lifts in there and everything I.

Yeah, the the old tenant was a customer, so when he was about to leave I bought the Compressor and the lift and a little office that I took down from him.

Nice.

Yeah, it helped.

A lift helped a lot.

Oh yeah, I.

Can only imagine, yet not having a but earlier, earlier you were talking, but it's like my shop is long ways, so I have one one, one door right.

So when I do the cameras or the radars, I back up the vehicle, I make it facing the front of the shop.

So what with cameras?

I lower, I adjust lighting by lowering the the gate.

Sometimes I have to go all the way.

Yeah, and I have two switches for lightings to two zones for lightings.

That's how I just adjust the lighting for the camera and it never failed.

Never failed.

Probably one time that I didn't close the gate all the way down and it failed because of lightings.

Other than that, and With the radars is the opposite I just opened the, the metal gate, because it would interfere with the, with the target.

Okay.

Okay, yeah, I had a.

I was doing an around-a-view calibration for a Hyundai today and I was fighting the lighting in the shop because they had this big bay door open and and it the sun wasn't even shining in.

It wasn't on that side of the shop, but there was just enough of a glare on the mats when they're laying on the floor that it couldn't see it.

So so we tried closing the door, but it's, the door is just all glass panels.

It didn't change it at all.

So I had to set up like cardboard pieces On the garage door in order for it to get the glare away.

But yeah, stuff like that's been interesting to kind of figure out.

But, like you say, yeah, having a dedicated space that you know is gonna work for the Environment of these things, that would be, that would be huge.

So now, you got anything, I'm planning hopefully to find somebody a helper, not a tech helper that would Pick up and drop off vehicles for a desk calibration.

Okay, the reason why there's a lot of competition around me and Prices are ridiculous.

People do like Glass, people do a does jobs for 200, 250, 300, so I'm thinking to Provide convenience rather than drop the price.

Yeah and you know I think it would.

Everybody I talked to.

They say it's a great idea, they, they would even go with me, even if they have to pay more.

So you're, you're down in Texas, right, what?

What part of Texas?

Yeah, a near Dallas.

Okay, okay, a little town called the Kennedy oh.

Okay, how long you been there two years.

Okay originally from Philadelphia.

Oh, okay, move to Texas two years ago a Little bit of a weather change there, huh.

Yeah, yeah, I know, if you look at it, I'm originally from the Middle East, so it's like I'm going back to my roots here in Texas more at home, yeah when, when I was about to to come to the States, my anchor it's like a sponsor, but they call it an anchor because he doesn't pay anything my anchor was in Philadelphia.

So I'm like, okay, so I'm going to Philadelphia.

I haven't heard anything about it.

Let me Google it.

So I Google it, you know, I read a little bit about it and then I was like, let me go pictures.

And so what?

I see the pictures.

The first pictures that pop is this the snow.

I'm like, no, I'm moving, I'm moving to California.

But when I came to Philadelphia and the first time snowed I think I arrived on August, but the first winner, like around Christmas, oh my god, like the spirits, and and actually when it snowed, it's not, it's not cold, it's it's warm, it's it's after the snow, that's when it gets cold, you know.

Yeah, right I like that.

I really like that.

Well, I stayed there since 2009 till two years ago.

Awesome, so okay, so you moved over to the States from Iraq.

How old were you at that point?

What was the?

What was the reason for moving here?

What?

Oh, I yeah this way, I worked as an interpreter with the troops for about five years, from 2003, from the war like a week after the war on probably the first local national that was hired as an interpreter Okay, yeah, I worked between 2003, 2008, 2008, 2009 as an interpreter with the troops.

I worked for a Like private companies and the green zone, and then I worked as a an interpreter, also slash officer, in a anti-terrorism unit.

Okay that's the last job that I did for the US government in Iraq.

So we we were, we were like wanted over there.

Like you know, our names was because we're the people that helped the invader, whatever you want I see.

Okay, yeah, so everybody was looking, looking for us, they, they, they wanted you know, I got shot, I got blown up, got displayed from from from home for like three, four times.

We didn't own a house, we, we rented all the time.

My cousin got killed.

My other cousin, the she got kidnapped.

They asked for ransom and then we didn't hear anything about her At the time, at the time the government, us government preferred to hire people that have relatives already working for the for, for for the coalition forces, and so it was automatic for the US government, it was automatic for me to you know my brothers, my cousins, and get everybody involved.

The pay was good and In 2003, 2004, it wasn't as bad as it got after 2005 with the sectarian violence.

But yeah, I know, I know americans 2003, they used to come and just take the bus and go and bag that and just go shop and do whatever, but after that, no, it got ugly.

So then the US government, 2008, I think, they approved what's called si v, special immigration visa for those that help the troops in iraq and afghanistan.

Okay.

I applied for it and I was over qualified because they needed 12 months and I had five years.

So I got accepted like I was number 67 out of 5000 every year they had for that and my plan was to come here.

Honestly, I looked at it financially.

My plan was to come here to have a plan b, of course, to escape If anything is gonna happen.

Plus, at the time I had the chance to apply for my whole family to come here, but I was just gonna ask about that yeah.

Yeah, I wanted to go back then because they used to pay local nationals.

Look at it this way probably local national pay is 10th Of what a US citizen or a green card holder would pay.

So I was like you know what, Let me go get my green card in a one month and come back to iraq.

But the problem is obama got elected at that time and the first thing he did.

He withdrew most of the troops from iraq, so companies over there were not taking green card holders anymore.

They were taken Only us citizens.

I'm like, okay, so I'm in the states, let me find something to do.

And what else?

I mean I?

I was doing translation.

So I found a job in the university of pennsylvania to do annotation translation language projects for google and some other companies and I really wanted to finish my masters and my phd in the university of pennsylvania.

But the problem is fund.

I didn't have no money, so my plan was to stay there as a part-timer as long as I can until they have they have a position, you know, to hire a full-time.

And remember, we're still 2008, 2009.

The economy is.

Yeah, it's a rough time.

Yeah, nobody had positions For anything.

But after I think two years, two, three years, they had a position and I think 30 people applied for that position, included myself.

We got interviewed and Again they dropped the position because of the funding.

But unfortunately I I got received an email from Like the manager over there, whatever she was, and she said I was the person that got chosen for the, for the, for the position, but unfortunately, because of funding, they had to drop it.

Oh that really Like put a dent in me, you know, because yeah that was the door for me to finish what I had planned.

That and that's when I said you know what?

That's it.

I'm not staying one day over there anymore, so I quit and I started looking for a job and, ironically, I had a Volkswagen Passat at that time 2000 Volkswagen Passat.

They had a check engine light that I was trying so hard.

Now we're talking about a guy that never changed a battery of a car in his whole life.

Okay.

I went to dollar store and I bought $20 or $25 Chinese kit like has some wrenches and some screwdrivers that you use in one time with a break and I started going Saturday.

Sunday I don't have any work, so I go to the junkyard, so me going to the end because I suck at it.

I don't have money to take it to a mechanic and so again I suck.

So I have to go more than one time and open more, throw at it more, more than one port, to see if.

I can fix the check engine light and me going over there a lot of times.

I, you know, just saying hi to people, be nice to them.

And so when I quit from the university, I was there one weekend and I was talking to that junkyard owner and he was like oh, so you quit.

I was like, yeah, I quit.

I'm looking for a job, temporary job.

He said, well, I'm looking for somebody that you know does mail and you know dispatch.

I was like okay, I'll take the job you know I need the money.

I end up staying with him for eight years.

Okay.

That's not okay.

I was looking for a temporary job.

But I liked what.

I liked what was going on in the junkyard.

I knew it's the same feeling that I felt when I, when I, got introduced to doing elevators.

I did elevators for about nine years or 10 years, I think, back in Iraq.

Okay.

That was the same feeling.

You know it's a new field.

You don't, you know nothing about it.

Cars was the same thing.

You know.

You know, you feel you know nothing about it.

Let me put it this way we started, I started working for the dude we were paying to was it 25?

25?

No 2500 a month rent.

When I quit, he bought the whole property for $4 million.

Oh, wow.

There was a lot going on in that junkyard and a lot changed, yeah, so we used to buy 30 cars every day.

Okay, that was our average 20, 20, 30 cars every day.

Wow, we had six, six tow trucks and out of those 20, 30 cars every day, so many of them.

I asked him what's wrong with it.

I used to be this batch, I used to try to whatever makes the money.

So we asked him what's wrong with it.

They say, well, angel locked.

And then when we get there we just cut the, the alternator belt and the car runs.

So that's.

We started developing it from scrap yards to parts to fixing vehicles and sell them to a lot of things, a lot of departments we started opening in that junkyard.

I mean imagine we used to rent a small portion of it.

You know, he ended up buying it for $4 million.

Yeah, that's crazy yeah it is, it is.

That's, that's how I you know got introduced to automotive.

Okay.

I never knew anything about it, but I really liked it.

I started watching because a part of my it wasn't my job, but I wanted to do it myself.

I used to sell engines and transmissions on eBay and I wanted to compression, test every engine and write, write them down and put them in my post and my listing on eBay.

So I had to watch videos.

I had to learn how things work in order to be able to have answers to all these questions that I have.

That's how I know scanner Danner and all the other good, you know big, big names.

Start following these and then you know.

When a snap on truck stops outside, you cannot help it like everybody's buying.

What was wrong with you, man?

I started buying.

You know some stuff.

I found a snap on various pro.

It was outdated.

I updated it and bought an auto 906 TS.

I had some stuff to play around with to use them.

Yeah.

Yeah, until COVID hit.

That was when my wife we just had a baby, so I told the owner.

I was like, listen, I don't want to bring COVID to my family, so I'm going to take a break.

It was going to let like three guys to go because of the economy.

I'm like no, let me go because I know I, you know my pay is more than these guys.

So leave them.

Let them stay working and I can go.

And even if I'm at home I can still help over the phone.

I just don't want to bring complications to the family.

Right.

And that's when I started.

You know just going to friends and family and you know checking their cars.

I had some cars to sell also on the side.

I was working on them.

I was never a company when I was in Philadelphia.

Okay.

That's so we were.

I was, I was at home for like a year, a little over a year.

So we decided now we have kids in Philadelphia.

Unfortunately it wasn't.

It wasn't that great city for to raise your kids anymore.

So we decided to move to Texas.

We had other families, friends.

They moved here to Texas and they like it.

So it was like you know what, let's go spend COVID over there.

If we like it, we stay, we don't like it, we just go back.

You know.

I know the dude is going to take me every.

You know, whenever I go back he's going to take me and he understood.

You know he was supportive.

Okay.

That's when we moved here and again I was honestly.

When we moved here, I was looking to open a junkyard.

Another, eric Sure.

I wanted to open a junkyard, but I didn't have the funds to do that because I, I, I know every little detail about the about a junkyard, how to run a junkyard successfully, how to sell the ports.

You know what?

What breaks in the cars.

Yeah, how do you even start one Like you just have to buy a bunch of broken cars at one time, or I guess I don't even know how they began.

There's.

There's city auctions, there's the, you know co-part IA there's.

You just make advertisement in the, in the local news papers and you just buy cars.

And believe it or not, and Philadelphia, like the main source of our cars, were coming from a guy, a guy that used to sit at home and he has five or six ads and paper newspapers and online and people just call him and he referred the car to us and we pay him 25 or $50 depends on how many cattle I converted the car has.

Okay.

Yeah so, but that didn't work because it needs a lot of money.

Plus, here in Texas they making it hard for the people to start anything with automotive.

I don't know why, like in Arlington, the, the city that I live in, they don't if.

If you have a, a, an auto sales license and expires, they don't, they don't renew it for you anymore.

You have to find somewhere else.

Yeah, Some people say it has something to do with the World Cup because the studio I'm here is going to be hosting some of the games for the World Cup.

I don't think so.

But I think because automotive businesses, especially car dealers, they a lot of them, they deal with a lot of cash and so the city is not making any taxes from them.

Oh, okay, there's a lot of them and and, and it's bringing a bad reputation to, especially with all the theft and and and a lot of people a lot of people getting killed because of a car.

I don't know how is it over there, but here it happened.

I had a customer actually.

He went to repo a car.

He got killed, Unfortunately.

He was a good customer too, yeah.

Yeah, I, I guess I I'm pretty lucky.

I I'm near the Twin Cities and there's some places, some parts of the cities down there that aren't the greatest, but I'm a little bit outside, I'm in the suburbs and the rural areas around and so I've been pretty lucky with that side of things.

But yeah, like one of our friends a couple years back, you know he was out doing key job and a gun pulled on him and stuff.

So yeah, it makes you think, especially when you get diving into keys and anti theft stuff for vehicles.

Every day in Philadelphia.

Every day every day in Philadelphia.

I have I have key guys, friends, still friends.

In Philadelphia.

The other day he came with his dad and his brother because there are like four or five families over there.

They all came here.

They were trying to see what's going on here.

They all want to move because they kidnapped his brother, they took all his inventory and they wanted his brother to to make a key for that Dad challenger.

And his brother was smart.

He was like I don't have the tool to do it, my brother does.

So when he called him, he gave him a hint in Arabic on the phone.

They told him call your brother, let him come right now.

So he gave him a hint in Arabic and the dude called the police and the police went with him and yeah, it was ugly and then, they, you know, a couple of teenagers Paul a gun on him.

They took his 608.

It's, it's, it's ridiculous.

I mean, it's fallen apart the city over there.

Two days ago they stole my my sister-in-law 2017 CRV and last week last week they stole the rims of my brother-in-law.

You had a 2018 Honda Accord.

I can tell them to move out, but people don't understand the.

the key is in the Hondas have been a big deal around here is there was a good structure time.

The kind of converters are expensive.

The CRVs and the Prius are the most expensive among all cars.

Okay On the in general, but I know the CRV at that time CRV was big money, CRV and the Prius.

The Prius is the most expensive, I think they they got up to 1500.

For one cat.

Just a cat like Convora.

Yeah, if it's original, wow, they don't pay you a hundred dollars.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, I wonder why.

Yeah, the I can't believe how many all keys lost that I've done for Kia, hyundai stuff.

It's been tough to get some of the keys because there's so common for those things.

You know there's a lot going on on them, yeah.

Yeah, I know they're doing push button or they're putting in anti theft.

Yeah, 23s and up, yeah, all of them.

There's no more I don't think there's more and no more bladed.

No, no, anymore.

Yeah, that's, that's just.

That's absolutely crazy.

Again, I'm I feel lucky where I'm at.

I'm in a town of like 1100 people, so it's very quiet up here, which I I enjoy quite a bit.

But yeah, I'm down in the city sometimes.

You see that there was actually one of the shops like service.

It's attached to a gas station and somebody took their vehicle or it might have been a stolen vehicle, but they rammed it through the front doors of the gas station while it was closed and then went into the shop area, took all the keys and then stole a bunch of other vehicles from their lot for vehicles that were being worked on and stuff.

I was like holy shit, it's absolutely crazy what people are doing out there.

My shop here is kind of between a suburbs, a country, southern part, and the city of Arlington, which is a big city with a lot of shops, believe it or not, I I'd rather like.

Recently I started going to the southern part where there's a big fields, less shops, but I know with less those remote areas are safer, less competition and even the shops over there they appreciate you when, when you show up.

Yep, I 100% agree with that and, like there's some guys that run shops out of their pole barns up here, I'd say it's quite a few because it's so spread out, it's so low population when you go north, where I'm at, but they're awesome people and they're doing great work and I, like you, say they appreciate you because they don't have a whole lot of other options.

There's not a ton of dealers around, there's not a bunch of other mobile guys rolling around.

So there's actually some really good relationships with those guys running, you know, just small time shop.

But I mean they know what they're doing, so I got no problem working with them.

So, yeah, when I came here, I went to visit a friend who used to live in Philadelphia.

He's a mechanic and I just wanted to say, hi, you know, spend some time.

And he was like, oh, since you're here, we have this Lexus.

We just put an engine in it and it's not working.

Like, okay, I can't not right now, I can't come for it tomorrow.

I had nothing to do.

I was just sitting at home studying the the city.

I was going to the city hall reading more about the laws of junkyard.

So I'm like, yeah, I know, you know it's a bug, I can make money.

So I went over there.

It's the fuse that feeds all the injectors was blown.

I'm like, okay, you know, here's it, it's working now.

It's like, okay, since you're here, we have this range Rover that we bought from the auction.

Half of the engine is missing in the trunk.

I don't know.

I'm like, okay, what do you want me to do with it?

You know, spend some time.

Like okay, and I fixed that for them.

And they had another one with the airbag.

I fixed that for them and I never intended to do what I'm doing right now.

Honestly, I just wanted to stick to my plan.

You know, I wanted to open a junkyard.

It doesn't even have to junkyard.

You can open a little store and start dismantling vehicles and if you're smart enough, know where to sell the parts, you'll be able to grow from there.

That's what.

That was my plan.

But, like all all I know, all of a sudden people started calling me from nowhere, like, hey, we heard you.

You fixed cars.

We have this problem, this electric problem.

Okay, I was like okay, I have nothing to do, let me go see what's going on with it.

You know, and it started like that.

I'm like what am I doing this now?

Nothing wrong with it, I mean.

I love it.

But the problem is.

The problem is I loved electronics when I was a kid.

That was my dream to be to have a degree in electric and electronics.

It didn't.

It didn't happen for many reasons, but but right now I have a family.

I have a wife and three kids and I cannot just chase my dreams.

You know I am responsible for other people, so I have to put them in front of me when I make decisions.

You know I saw what I'm doing, or what the people are calling me for it's making money.

I mean, I wanted to open a junkyard to make money and secure my, my kids future.

But if what I love to do is making money and can secure their future, yeah, why not?

That's why I never wanted to come here and open my company.

Understand what I'm saying.

My goal was make money and buy a house, make him live in a good environment.

That was my goal.

So I, you know I started doing it and people started calling me.

But again I have, I have a little experience.

I used to fix my cars and my friends and some other mechanics cars.

I never went to training and never went to school for it.

I studied engineering for two years but that was.

That had nothing to do with cars.

You know it was.

I know what's a ohms law, I know the laws.

I went to school, I graduated high school, I have a degree in translation that has nothing to do with cars.

So that was.

That was kind of obstacle for me, like I wanted to do it.

But at the same time I know those are big responsibility, those cars, people's cars.

I don't want to go guessing, right.

So what I?

What I?

What I started doing?

Of course I didn't do any company.

I didn't have any business card, it was just my phone number being spread somehow, I don't know how.

So what I started doing?

My last job was in Philadelphia.

My salary I was like okay, so I have to make this this much a day If I can make it.

Doing easy stuff like wiring, repair, and then learn while I go.

I can probably expand my knowledge.

I can take hard jobs and leave them to the end of the month when I achieve my goals.

So I have like, yeah, I have a number.

If I make that number, I will go to to do hard cases and that's what I did.

I used to work two or three days on a car, I swear, two or three days on a car without solving the problem.

But during those two or three days you don't know how many videos I watch, you don't know how many PDFs I download, you don't know how many things I do.

And I do it carefully because at the end of the day those are vehicles that I supposed to fix, not ruin.

You know, nowadays I go to vehicles that probably a person like me before, like the past Ali, went to and screwed so much, so much, and I come to clean up after him.

Yeah.

I was, you know.

I know I did it a couple of times, but I was trying to avoid doing it, and when I, when I hit a roadblock, I just say hey man, I'm sorry I couldn't fix it.

You know, hopefully I can help you the next one and just leave without getting paid for.

Yeah, I don't know how many hours I used to do to do in every one of them.

Sometimes I succeed and it's a joy for me because I learned so much.

And so Diag mostly people call for Diag.

You know they don't give you easy stuff, they give you hard stuff.

Right.

And and some months I wasn't even making my goals.

So but at the same time I want to learn.

I cannot just go do headlights and like stupid stuff, that's not going to take me nowhere.

Yeah.

But by time I was achieving my goals and I was learning, and so I can say that I my my success rate started going up.

I started seeing that at the end of the month I was making money, extra money.

I was hitting a problem where I cannot finish a job because I don't do any programming, so I'm like.

I think it's time to to invest in some programming equipments.

That's when I had my wife's school laptop.

I she she wasn't using it because she took a break from school, so I took it and I used it as my programming laptop and I bought a car deck.

Oh nice.

Yeah, and I started with the easy ones.

You know for Chevy, toyota, honda, and I never touched Chrysler.

Don't touch a Mercedes.

Yeah, that's smart, that's right.

But and then after that I had another obstacle.

Now, of course, that program and gig it got developed like right now, If you look at it from that car deck, with my wife's laptop, right now.

I have five laptops.

I have every VCI forever manufacturer except Sentry.

Okay.

And a lot of them multiple I have.

Like the Ford, I have all three Fords, 123 GM I have to Volvo I have, I have all of them.

So I started making money and buying more.

Vci is making money and then I go yearly instead of by Vin.

Sure.

But again I had another obstacle, which was the keys.

Some jobs I couldn't finish because I didn't.

I wasn't doing keys.

So that's when I bought the 608.

608 was so helpful in doing programming keys.

Right, yeah, that's a heck of a tool for that Look at it, look at it this way I am still on a journey.

Uh, was it?

Last month I bought my first key machine.

I haven't used it yet, but right now I do.

What kind did you get?

the dolphin, nice Version two, I think, or I forgot the model, but they had a cell on it, so I jumped on it right away.

Nice, yeah, you'll like it.

I have the older one, but it's.

It's been a fantastic little tool for me for what I need.

It's knocked it out of the park with very little obstacles.

I was about to be on it.

It's pretty good.

Now I say that is like I'll maybe do at the most four or five keys in a day, because it's not the main part of my business.

But it holds up just fine.

You know, I have it, so it gets plugged in every night, but I've never had it run out of battery.

So yeah, that's not bad.

Yeah, it's, it's been, it's been really good and, like I say, usually when something doesn't work it's operator air as opposed to something you know wrong with the actual machine.

But the interface is really nice and it's it's been it's been a great addition.

Yeah, I watched some, some videos on it and I was able to calibrate it.

I was going to actually buy two keys for my van and I have two vans.

I wanted to make duplicates for those, just to you know.

Try them out.

What kind of vans you got.

I got a 15 for transit connect and 2024 transit connect.

OK, are those the TV style keys?

The.

The 2020 is the flip.

The one looked like the Mustang one.

Oh OK.

And the, the 15 is the, the, the model before like the, is it?

I think it's a four button key Actually, ok for me.

Yeah, it's a four button key.

It doesn't look like the old Jaguar style.

No, no, no, no, that's, that's the first generation of the transit connect.

That's one of the reasons why I didn't buy that van.

Yeah, I bought the TV job for it and my I have two of those connects and it's the only TV keys I've actually made with it and I'm kind of glad because that is a ridiculous process to cut one of those keys.

And I had looked to see what a locksmith would charge for a TV key and it's like three hundred some dollars for one key.

I was like really.

But then I went through the process I'm like, oh, I get it now.

But yeah, that's really cool, man, that's, that's a heck of a story.

You know, I have a lot of respect for anybody who goes to another country.

Obviously.

I mean, you had the advantage of speaking the language but still just coming across the world to a completely different place and bringing your family with.

I mean, did you, when you left Iraq, did you still have family that stayed over there?

Oh yeah, left.

Or you imagine you still have family now that lives there.

Yeah, my whole family over there, but the problem they didn't.

Everybody is attached to my mom and my mom, has her sisters.

She didn't want to come here.

I don't blame her.

Life here sucks, it's so boring, it's routine kills.

Ok, look out of this way.

The other day I visit every three years.

Every time I have a baby when, when they're like one year old, I go to Iraq.

You know.

So, my family, my mom and they, you know, see the baby.

So the other day it was the fourth of July so we were doing nothing.

I was like you know, I told my wife you know, let's, you know, let's go out, let's see, let's see some fireworks, take the kids out.

So I took them out and we were we're riding at night and my, my, my daughter said oh, it feels like Iraq tonight, because over there they used to go almost every night.

My brother would take them out, go either eat something or do something or whatever.

So life over there starts at night.

Oh OK.

Here.

Here is it's different.

So that's why, when my mom said, no, I didn't want to, I didn't want to push her to come here.

The only reason why I wanted her here, honestly because health insurance.

Other than that.

It's way better for her to stay over there with, with, with everybody.

How long of a flight is that?

Yeah, there's no straight flight to flights.

One of them is 12 hours, 13 hours, and the other one is two and a half hours, three hours, so probably 16 hours in total.

Wow, I don't mind it Like I'm used to it.

I watched two, three movies.

Yeah, I love it.

Kids too, my daughter.

The other day she was like this is the best day ever because junk food, and, and, and, and a TV for like 10 hours.

Sure, yeah yeah.

Extended tablet time, yeah Well, yeah, that's crazy.

I might be going to Australia in the spring and that will be, if I go, the longest flight by far that I've ever taken.

How many hours is it going to be?

I don't, I don't even know, but I've never been.

The farthest I've been outside of the US is Mexico, so that's like from where I'm at.

That's not outside the state.

Right right.

If you're in Texas, that's in the state.

Yeah, I think it was maybe maybe five, six hour flight from where I'm at.

That's the longest I've ever done and I'm not a big.

I'm not a big flyer.

I don't.

I don't love it, and the older I get, the less I like it.

Because I'm listening to all the mechanical things on the plane I'm like, well, what if that can?

Bus goes down.

What's going to happen, you know but it's.

I was presented with an opportunity to to go to Australia and I'm going to do it just because and it's like, how often do you get a chance to go to another part of the world like that and experience it?

So I'm looking forward to it.

You know, you know one thing about automotive the.

When I was a customer, we always looked at mechanic, mechanic, like mechanics and mechanic shops, and they are the hero of the day.

They are the ones that fix the car.

They make the car from not running to cranking.

If, if I can go back in time, honestly, I would take every ASD ASC certificate.

I would go to every school possible to learn this industry.

Unfortunately, I like, I'm 43 years old, I have kids.

I am planning to take every training.

I'm going to a AST.

Oh nice.

The last two visions and I was gonna the first year.

I was going to go to Super Saturday because it was right there in Philadelphia but they cancel it because of COVID.

Yeah.

So again, yeah, if I have a chance like if, if I can go back in time, I would definitely go If I'm here in the States, because back in Iraq you know the system is different.

Here you can, you can go, and then you can pay your tuition later.

You can take a loan over there.

There was no loan.

Either you pay upfront or that's it.

So, yeah, I would definitely go, go to school, I would definitely take those certificates.

What are?

So go ahead.

Oh no, go ahead, you can finish.

No, no, I say I envy people that had the time to spend on the academic part of this industry.

I don't.

Yeah.

I know a lot of friends are are going to be listening to this podcast.

So if if you hear me or see me writing something stupid in one of these groups, so I apologize up front.

You know I'm trying my best to catch up with everybody, but I can say I'm glad, I'm lucky that I'm surrounded by really smart people, you know.

Yeah, oh, that's.

That's definitely a key part of it for first for myself for sure, and a lot of other people is having that strong network to support, because otherwise, boy, you're going to hit so many roadblocks and not know what to do.

Yeah, I appreciate everybody telling me no, that's wrong, I'm not in those groups, so I can't get a like, a like smiley or heart smiley on a picture or on a comment.

No, I want people to correct me all the time, because without correcting me I wouldn't be what I am right now.

Honestly.

Yeah, I've always found it's really interesting because I've been.

I've been doing this as a career since I started.

I mean, I was already fixing cars in high school and then as soon as I got out, and so I've been around this a long time and I've always found it really interesting.

The people who can just hop in and within a couple of years you know they're, they're up to speed and they're doing really impressive things.

Throughout the industry.

I've met a handful, or more than a handful, a number of people over the years that were like that.

I'll never forget one guy I worked with at a shop.

I was like about five, six years in and I was hitting my stride as a tech and he was an accountant like that was his job for for his whole career, and then he had some life changes and whatever, and he ended up working at this shop and it's just he had to take a job and this and that and I was kind of tasked with helping him.

You know, here's all the tires come off, here's all the brakes work, sort of thing.

You know just real basic stuff.

But man, this guy he picked it up like that and he just he just ran with it.

He was a really good tech within a short period of time.

And that's not everybody like.

I've seen the opposite to where people do this for years and years and years and still really like it doesn't come naturally.

They struggle with it, but the people that can pick it up and just go with it, that's that's really impressive to me and I mean like what you're saying.

You probably years.

You are probably on the other side.

You are the person that spent blood and sweat on it.

And you look at it.

It takes me a really long time to learn something.

That's the problem.

No, no, no no, listen, but on this side, like from a person that started technically, I've been in business for two years, if you want to look at it honestly.

I've been in business for two years but it will be always not the same, always not the same to me.

You know, when I see these 30 years old, 35, 40, whatever younger than me, they have achieved what it is, no matter what I do, it will not feel the same as them.

That's just probably just my feeling.

I don't know, and it is true.

It is true Like when you spend 10 years in, you cannot compare somebody that spent two years to 10 years in a business.

We had a joke about it the other day.

I call them I'm a non-combat soldier.

Okay.

You know they are the.

You guys are the real soldiers that went to training camps and went to the battle and got shot and got wounded.

And you know, I'm just a guy that just got hired two years ago.

I haven't seen a battle yet.

I have been in battles, you know, but they're not as long as your battles.

You understand what I'm saying.

Right, but I mean you're making it work and you have every VCI for every car right Like just.

That doesn't mean anything.

Everybody, you know everybody with money can't.

By the way, I started with $5,000.

Well, that's that's what I'm saying is like you made it, you made it work and you're making it work, and that's that's really impressive to me for anybody that can do that.

And I mean, here's the thing for me personally no matter how long I do this, whatever I venture into next, I have that like imposter syndrome, like what am I doing here?

Like I don't, I'm not a business owner, what the heck am I doing?

And I do have to remind myself like okay, well, you're doing it, so I guess you are a business owner, but I get that.

I get that imposter feeling all the time on new things that I'm venturing into.

Okay, I don't know if that's normal for everybody, but it sure is for me.

I listen.

I listen to your comment the other day and one of your podcasts I'm trying to catch up.

By the way, I haven't listened to all of them, but you were talking about.

You know the time when you, when you bought the van, you know how the feeling is different, how you felt.

You know what.

Yeah, it's happening.

I can you know.

I see the company is forming.

The shape of a company is forming.

It's different.

When you buy the first van is different.

I started with a again my wife's Honda Civic 2016,.

Honda Civic the trunk but it was different when you buy the van.

It was different when you get the, when you sign the first lease.

It was different when you hire somebody.

It's always different.

You know it's good different.

Yeah, yeah it is.

It's really cool to see it grow and expand and it's lots of hard work.

But it is really cool feeling I was.

I was just mentioning I heard a guy to help me with like the phones and the books and scheduling and stuff like that, but we got three of us now and so you know, we had lunch the other day.

Yeah, I was like it's a team, yeah, let's go.

Team Although although in English two is a team and Arabic two is not a team.

Oh, okay, interesting.

And Arabic.

Two is a dual.

Two, okay, okay.

You guys are a team now.

Yeah, yeah, the three of us.

What you guys are doing, what other people you know.

I was.

You know, if you want to be smart, just around yourself by smart people.

So if you want to be successful, surround yourself by successful people.

So when I see your success is my success, I know.

When I'm around you, when I'm around X and Y and Z I don't want to mention any names, I don't want to get any upset like, oh you forgot about me.

No, everybody is successful to me.

I'm the bottom of the list.

This is how I look at it.

Honestly, I'm at the bottom of the list and I want to achieve everything that the people on you know above me achieved.

That's how I look at it.

Yeah, seeing others do something you know, make improvements or make progress or moves within you know, whatever their business or whatever they're doing, it's inspiring.

And I know I can point to a number of examples where I probably either wouldn't have done something in my business or it would have taken me a lot longer to like build up the courage to do something if I hadn't seen one of you guys do it.

Other people- yet you all right, yeah, and I'm just like, oh okay, like you know, you bought that shop and you're doing 8S calibrations in that, like that's really cool.

Now I'm going to start thinking about something like that, and it's so inspiring to see other people that you interact with on a regular basis be successful.

Yeah, so that's a key part of it, I think, is getting that group of people together.

I think in business you have to have guts.

Yeah, you have to have guts.

You have to.

You know get fear away.

Your money can't have a shy money.

If your money is going to be shy, I don't think you're going to make it or you're going to be questioning your whole life.

Should I spend that much?

Should I rent it?

Should I do?

You know no no, you have to go for it, Whatever it is, you know you have to go for it.

You have to buy it, believe it or not.

Like like the first year, I didn't even believe myself when I when I looked at the end of the year and I spent 140K.

Right.

One person, one vehicle, no shop 140K.

What was I doing?

You know, yeah, you have to in this business.

You have to spend to get, yeah.

My, my spending habits for the business are wildly different than my personal life.

I'm I'm fairly conservative when it comes to my, my personal finances, but it's been especially.

I mean, it's been growing for me the last few years, but it's been so different the spending there Cause it's like, okay, do I need this?

You know, am I getting calls about this?

Yeah, and.

And then there's a lot of purchases where I'm just kind of like, I'm just like, right, let's do it, let's get it ordered.

And then once I have that, that tool and I'm actually using it, it's like I'm I'm never looking back Like this is part of my business.

Now I need this.

It's required to do my daily stuff.

Yeah.

And so there's, there's a little bit of thought that obviously should go into it, Like yeah, you know, can I make money with this?

But I think it's.

It's relatively easy to figure that out, and if the answer is yes, okay, well, why not?

Let's get it coming, let's make it happen.

See, this is how I look at it.

With the spread of internet, youtube, training groups, facebook groups or any other social media groups, it's right now you have.

You have to be the person that can do it.

It's not a matter of making money or not.

At this moment, especially in the first years of your business, you have to make your goal that I'm the person that can do it, you know.

I'm the person with flex, with IO, with the K tech, with the Kess, with the.

Did I mention IO?

Yes, I did, with the ACDP, what else you know, I'm the person that can do it and then money will come, money will come.

Just have this goal.

I'm the person that can do it, like right now, when I go, when I go to new shops the other day was my first day go and hand cards in two years and so when I go inside I'm like I know people, people, they don't like strangers, they don't like you know why are you talking to me, man?

Just make it short, Like so I'm trying to make it as short as possible, but then drag them into, be you know, into an interesting conversation to them as a business owners.

So I always start I don't tell them I do Ford, chevy, whatever.

No, I tell them basically, I do everything the dealer does and I do everything the dealer doesn't do.

I really really missed them.

85% of them like what do you mean?

You know they wanted me to say more.

So now I got their interest now.

Okay okay, like.

And then I explained to them what everything the dealer does I do a desk calibration program and whatnot.

I use OE tooling and software, not Chinese.

But, at the same time I do everything that the dealer doesn't do.

And the reason why they don't want to do it?

Because they want to Sell your port.

I don't, I don't want to sell your part, I just want to finish the job.

I just want to fix the car for you.

So if you have a used module, you cannot find one, a new one, back order.

Just call me.

This is my business card.

That's perfect.

So, so yeah, I'm the person that does it.

Yeah, and then then your name gets spread around like crazy, like you were saying, just all of a sudden Everybody's got your number and hey, I heard you helped out so and so you know, with this problem I've got that problem too, or I've got another problem, and the more that you're Able to do, the more that's gonna happen.

I've said before I've done very little marketing for my, for my business.

It's just been, you know, word of mouth of, yeah, hey, sean, I'll take care of this and, like you said, part of that is getting that tool.

That's gonna do maybe that one job, right, yeah, that one used module job, and that's why I bought this relatively expensive tool.

But it gets me in the door with a place, right, like they've called you know four other places.

They can't clone this module, they can't get this used ECM to work in this, whatever, now I can do it and, yeah, put on a friendly face and all that stuff.

But then then maybe they'll call me for that easy one.

They just need to get knocked out like, oh, hey, okay, we can get Sean in here and then then you could start.

I mean, like GM, ford, chrysler, nissan, those are my big money makers for programming and most of that stuff that I do some of its, you know there's always the odd bulb.

Most of it's very straightforward, but a lot of those shops I got in the door by a specialty job, something that's a little unique, or, you know, clone in that win module over doing doing something that like, say, the dealer.

Other other people are able to do the other.

Yeah, yeah, it's a package.

I think it's a package.

It the core of it if is, if you can't do it or not, that's the core of it.

But if you, you know of course, other other things.

Like you have to be nice to people, your prices has to be reasonable.

You have to answer phone calls.

You have to, of course, on time.

Yeah, show up on time.

Um, be firm on your answers, you know, be confident on your information that you provide.

But again, the the main, the main thing is if you can do the job, because if you can't, the other stuff is Secondary main right if you can't do the job.

Yeah, you can be the friendliest person around with the best prices.

But if you can't, Know they're not calling you again.

But I've seen, I've seen peep, I've seen shops that fired people Fired technicians or mobile people just because they're assholes, you know.

Oh yeah, for sure.

Yeah, I Think some guys are so good at what they do, and they know it, that they're kind of assholes to people, just because they know they can be, and I mean, hey, do do whatever is right for you.

I've always taken the approach of, as long as the shops treating me with respect, I'm gonna do the same for them, and it's that part of it has worked out really well for me.

I believe, too, I'm just, you know, forming some good relationships.

Of course, you got to set up boundaries, you know.

And, yeah, like you say, beef, beef firm, yeah, yeah, exactly, but I just put in some some friendliness and respect in there, which I don't believe is that difficult of a thing to do.

And of course, yeah, you get, you get some.

You get some assholes out there, right there.

They own shops too, and so Then then it's on you to make a decision.

Do I want to keep working with this person?

But I don't know.

In my experience it's not the majority.

The majority for me and maybe I'm just lucky it's been it's been great relationships with shops.

You know what I, what I also Felt.

I don't know, this is my own, my own opinion, but I think the Joker on what we do is honesty.

If, if You're as a diagnostician or electric Electrician, whatever you want to call it if you're honest with the shop, you honest with the customer, that's you know that plays a big role.

Even sometimes, many times, they will forgive you, even if you cannot fix it.

You be like you know, I don't know about a man, we just send it to the.

You know, we just give it back to the customer, we just send it to the dealer or whatever.

But honestly is the one.

Because this is this is how it is.

If, if you take in your car to a mechanic shop to change the engine or change the alternator, I mean you're gonna see it physically that they change the engine or change the alternator with electric it's.

It's not like that.

I know.

I record videos, I take pictures as many as possible to prove what I'm, what I'm Billing for yeah but it's not like when they see a body shop fixed a fender or a mechanic change the brakes, the electric sure part is different.

It's you know, you know matter.

What do you show them Like, hey, look, those are your data pits before and those are data pits after.

Yeah, that's, that's not.

That's not the same as when, when a mechanic or a body shop does something so to them.

If, if you're, if You're honest, even if you did a mistake, or if you honest, like, let's say, for example, like Day before yesterday I went to a.

That was my second visit to a 19, what was this?

Gmc Sierra, 19, gmc Sierra and I had called a transfer case control module and the DC did, dc did, sorry, dc to DC transformer.

So they the, they got them.

They call me.

I went over there and I found out that the DC, the DC transformer, doesn't need programming.

Okay yeah, it's a plug-and-play just a charge for one program and there was a lot of dialogue with it the first visit.

So the brother was complaining a little bit about the bill.

Now his other brother that I deal with I was like, look, your brother has to look at the whole picture.

He doesn't have to look at just the number.

You cannot just look at the number, because how many modules I was supposed to program for you?

He said to like, look at the invoice, see how many my modules I program for you.

It's like oh, one, why was the other one?

Didn't need.

So it's, it's a package.

You cannot just look at your part of the deal.

You know it's a package, that's, that's how it is.

I know that there's people.

It's trust.

You know trust get built.

You don't get people don't trust you in one day or one night.

No, yeah, and I correct decisions will build that trust quickly.

Yeah, right, especially when it comes to like diagnostic stuff.

Obviously, if you make the right calls all over and over again, you can build that trust up.

But yeah, with something like programming it's almost mysterious to the person that's not doing it or the person that doesn't understand it, like Sean's just there with a laptop.

Is he actually doing anything?

Is he just on Facebook the whole time?

We don't know right.

And so, like you say, yeah, I've run a situation so like, oh, yeah, this module didn't need programming or this, this module Didn't need an update or whatever.

And I try to be as honest with shops as I can and so I'm charging a show-up fee now for stuff like that, as long as it wasn't me that told them that it needed that, if you know, if they're requesting it and that situation, but it's not my full, you know service fee, you know for program and a module and that that adds up.

What I have found has been actually a little bit challenging.

Is the guy that's working for me he, it was just me for the first, I Don't know three, three or four years doing it, okay, and then he hops in and so I'm sending him to these places where it's just been Sean every single time and they're very like, hesitant and Suspicious of what Steve has to say, especially if you're dying, and I had one shot.

They'll call me every time after heat program.

There's just like GM transmissions.

And they call me like are you sure Steve did it Right?

I'm like, yeah, I'm sure Steve did it right.

I was like your screenshots are in your invoice and everything.

I showed him how to do it and this and that they were just they were very Always right, right, so well it's.

Hopefully it's something where he can, you know, and I think he is building that trust up with shops too.

But I found that pretty interesting when he when they will get to a point to trust him.

But they will not trust a one-year person the same level they trust a four-year person.

That's what I'm saying Yep, yep, yeah, that's normal, I suppose.

But that is yeah.

So when you, when you, when you were renting a shop, I don't know.

I don't know.

I'd have to look around and see what's available, what the cost is for me.

Doesn't have to be crazy.

Like you know, I got 1500 square feet.

My rent is 1400.

Hmm, yeah, that's not bad at all.

Actually, it would be nice.

My, oh, here's the one thing it would be really nice for us.

I want a bigger van and it doesn't.

Nothing bigger would fit in.

But to my garage right now the transit connect is as tall as it can be and I can't have it outside At night in the wintertime, so I would so having a shop to park it at that would be.

That would be helpful, yeah that would be yeah, but so again, the shop is gonna have to come before the van.

Yeah, right, right, start doing those those 8s calibrations to pay for the van.

Yeah, but believe me, the shop will Will be a big plus.

I mean, if I have to choose between a big van and a shop, a shop is definitely a yeah, an improvement to the business sure it was a Fonzalo who was saying it's.

It's all just one big cycle, right?

You start out as a tech in a shop and you're doing Oil changes and you work your way up and you eventually quit and you get a mobile Business and you get a van, and then you come and then you come back to the shop and then all of a sudden you're advertising oil changes.

Hey, whatever makes the money, if you have somebody to do it.

Yep, Yep exactly.

This way I mean the oil changes and inspections, or those are, you know, bait.

Mm-hmm makes money off from oil change, you know yeah, lock leaders for sure the bait I mean.

Honestly, if I had a shop, I'll, instead of making I probably, come up with some, some kind of subscription for half at a price.

Mm-hmm subscription for customers for half at a price.

Oil change like.

Whatever oil change cost I will, I'll do it for half at a price as long as you come do it here.

Okay, okay then when they come, I punch the event number and all that.

I see what, what's?

If any TSB's or recalls, I'll just print it give it to them.

If I make one, one, one, one job out of these lists, you know I'm doubling my lost of that half of the oil change or whatever.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I promise, then you get all the riff ref.

That's what this bottom dollar just trying to get the cheapest oil change possible.

No, I mean, you know what I mean.

It doesn't.

It doesn't work like that.

Yeah, well, and then I said if I never do another set of tires again, it'll be too soon.

So there's, there's no way I would have a tire machine, absolutely not.

I Worked at Firestone for a long time and, yeah, I Don't miss the wrenching, I really don't.

I'll fix something here really, you know, on my van every once in a while, or Family members vehicle, and it's like, oh, it's kind of nice to get my hands dirty, but I'm like I don't really miss it.

I don't know, I just did.

I did so much of it.

I'd work Firestone for you know eight to ten hours and I go home and I'd I'd work on Sidework stuff at my house and I think I just burnt myself out on the mechanical side of stuff.

So I I always had two jobs from High school not, I'm not high school from first year of college Till 2009, when I, when I came to the States, I always had two jobs.

I Only see my family half a day in a week.

That's when I go give my mom money and and she gave me a little sugar tea and so I can make dinner at night in my second job at night.

Yeah, so I Gave you know the feeling.

I gave myself a break to yeah, raised in a family since I was in college, so, yeah, it's been fun, my life been fun.

That's good.

Whatever's going on here, that's.

That's just a joke, you know.

Yeah, the real stuff is at home.

Yeah, things got ugly when, when I started with the troops, because now I I had to stop going home.

If I want to see my family, it's either gonna have to be at my grandpa's house or at a restaurant because I don't want to put them in danger, which I already did.

Because my brother, I got my brother, my younger brother, I got him a job as a security guard and my older brother was the you can call him a handyman, the electric, the handyman of a whole base for America.

So both of them were involved.

My cousin was involved, my cousins, they were doing a.

The one that got killed, he was a driver.

Hmm in the others they were.

They had a contract to do the cell phone towers back then.

So yeah, it was fun.

I had a.

I had two AK-47s and three pistols.

One of them was the smallest, one was seven millimeter.

It was locked and loaded in my car.

The airbag module, the I mean the driver airbag, the guts, I had it out, and the two screws in the back, I had them off and okay it would still have.

Two clips is on the side, like when you, when you push it, it will still hold without putting the screws.

And Again, I had the guts out and I had the seven millimeter behind the airbag module.

Oh behind the airbag, the steering wheel airbag, sorry.

How old are you at this time?

that was I 2000, and I'd say six and up five and up 25.

Okay okay Dang, that's crazy.

It's just such a such a different Life than that.

What I experienced, I can't imagine.

I'm like yeah, but it ended.

It ended well, like right now, Okay, let me put it this way.

You see, you see how, you see how let's say okay, let's say our field, for example, you know when, when a tech is so involved in a car and he's like lost, there's a problem, big problem in the car and he, you know he had to take a break from it, go back home, you know, do a little more studying about it, go back next day to the shop and Work on it more.

And now he found it.

You know how happy he is.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, let me.

Let me tell you my happiest moments in life that's.

That's when I was, when I was with the anti-terrorism unit.

I had to stand in front of what I call a eagle eye, in front of a big screen.

We had people in the street and we're like, let's say, the the airplane.

The eyes were chasing a suspect or a person wanted and the people in the street, these the you know Our friends in the street, when they when they catch him, when they capture him and then when you come to To know that your reports showing that this person was planning to do a suicide attack in a Market full of women and kids and people in general, you know, that's exactly, you see the

feeling, you know, you, you know you're you're like you were a part of this.

Yeah, yeah, you know you were honestly, and it happened so many times.

So many times, either like he was planning to blow himself in a market or go kill Americans or do this or do that, whatever it is.

He's a terse, you know, and yeah.

So when you get to that level of Joy, like happiness, joy that you was a part of that, yeah, after that there's no core fix in the world.

Yeah after that there's no core fixing is gonna get you excited.

You understand what I'm saying.

Yeah, yeah, that crank.

No start is not quite the same oh.

My gosh, that's wild.

That's so cool man.

I really appreciate you sharing your story on here.

That's, that's pretty cool stuff.

Absolutely, man.

I'm a big fan of your podcast and Thank you.

I really hesitated to come here because I I know I I probably Disappointed a lot of people.

I didn't give no technical information or no advices or but.

You know, that's, that's me.

You know I'm the bottom of the list well, I, I don't think so, and that's that's the thing.

Is that's not what is all about.

Is the technical stuff right?

Like we're humans too, all of us doing this stuff, and everybody's got their own background and story and experiences they bring to it.

And it's pretty cool Just to talk to somebody in here about you know everything they've They've done to get to where they're at, like, how all the different walks of life you know, and we're all ended up doing something similar.

It's pretty crazy.

So I Really appreciate it you sharing here.

I I appreciate you having me oh.

Right, that's gonna do it for today's episode.

Thank you so much for all you for joining me.

I really appreciate that.

I hope you enjoyed that interview.

Also, I'd like to thank all the listeners out there and all the feedback I get on the show.

I always appreciate that, so thank you.

But with that, all the way, let's get out there, start fixing the world, one card at a time.

216: Ali Hameed

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