Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Full Auto Friday - Round 93

Episode Date: February 18, 2022

Rapid Fire Q and A to finish off the week: 1. Wingsuiting and plausible tricks/options from my local bridge 2. I just found out that I am shooting blanks, I want kids, but I am hung up on passing on my own DNA 3. Am I a fool to want to rid myself of a business that is thriving 4. My son wants to get a tattoo at the age of 17, how would you handle this as a parent Enjoy

Who is ready for some Q&A before their weekend? I am, and let's get right into this, because after I record these, I am going on a little bit of vacation for a little bit. So I will do my best to not run my mouth. Full Auto Friday, 93, here we go. Smoke, I'm looking at danger close now. Question number one. Since it looks like you are bored and are just posting mountain bike crashes, I've got a question for you. And I'm going to pause here.

I talked about this the last time I was sitting down with Joe. I don't know how the algorithm looks or how it works, I should say, on Instagram. But when you go into the Reels feature, which I discovered not too long ago, mine is mostly people fucking themselves up on motorized vehicles or mountain bikes or skateboards, and then other people holding and petting otters. I don't know how I've done this. I'm very happy with what my feed looks like. And it's not that I am bored and are just posting those things.

I get immense joy out of them, so I want to share that joy with others. Moving on. Well, listening to your Full Out of Friday episodes, I always have thought of what question I could ask for advice on events going on in my life. I'm a 39-year-old mechanical engineer and currently design and build pharmaceutical handling equipment. As you can imagine, the last two years have been a shit show. We've had three to four-month periods where I was working 67 days a week, 12 hours a day. I could have asked about how to best handle that stress. I could have asked your opinion on how to handle not wanting me or my family to have to take a vaccine that I'm helping produce. but I didn't. I could have asked you about how to best handle my issues I have been having with my wife, but I didn't. I could have asked you how to deal with my now 20 year old stepson, the stepson who I've lived with since he was five, the one who thinks I'm wrong about everything, the one that walks all over my wife, the one that almost got himself kicked out of the army last month, but I didn't. I could have asked the best way to try to grow inside my business, or to grow my side vision, I should say. But I didn't. I could have asked about how to get myself.

together and stopped drinking so much, but I didn't. What I'm going to ask is this. I used to commute over the Newberg Beacon Bridge every day. It's a fairly tall bridge that crosses the Hudson River. At the time, my brother had a fast bass boat. I would like to know the probability of being able to jump from the top of the span in a wingsuit, pulling off a backflip, of course, and gently gliding into the bass boat speeding up the river. Diagram attached for reference. Thank you for all I do. I truly enjoy the podcast. I probably fly the cleared hood flag with my Yeti Tumblr. Now, I am going to do my best to remember to attach this reference photo because it is spectacular. It is a masterpiece of modern design and shows true mastery of whatever program that you use to create this. So I'm going to

do my best to try to have this thing up while I'm answering this question. So those of you who watch over YouTube can check it out as well. And some of you might be asking why the hell would Andy answer this question? And the answer is simple is I get a lot of questions about wingsuits. And I think there's one key feature that people don't realize. If you don't deploy a parachute, you can only jump in wing suit once. I'm not saying you can't land the suit. I'm saying you can't land the suit more than once if you don't deploy that parachute. So this question is about, you know, could you jump off the top of the span? Could you do a backflip? I'd call that a a gainer.

And could you gently glide into the bass speeding boat up the river? Now, without deploying the parachute, that bass speeding boat would need to be doing close to 100 miles an hour. So probably not possible. But after standing up on top of the bridge, and I would say for a wingsuit, and this is just like maybe my comfort level, it would need to be about a thousand feet tall from where you're going to step off to where you would impact. I doubt that this bridge actually has that height, so probably not even feasible.

The backflip or the gainer is actually very easy in a wing suit. You kind of keep your wings collapse and you jump and thrust your hips forward, and you can extend your leg wing a little bit, and it just rotates you right over. I've done it a bunch of times off of cliffs and out of hot air balloons. It's actually a really enjoyable sensation because it rotates out nicely, and you come out of it at a great angle of attack to fly the suit. But then we get to the place where you need to pull your parachute. I highly recommend it for people who want to continue in this particular activity.

So when you do deploy the parachute, it's probably going to have a forward speed of somewhere. Call it for, since there's so many different types and they fly different ways, a broad range will call it 10 to 15 miles an hour, or I'll call it 5 to 15 miles an hour of forward speed. So if your brother could actually match the speed of your canopy and was underneath at the appropriate time and started at the appropriate place, yes, you could absolutely land your parachute inside of the bass speeding boat, or the bass speedboat, I should say, and repeat the process over and over. The biggest thing you'd probably want to do is try to make sure your canopy landed in the boat. It's not a big deal if it gets wet, you'd just need to let it dry out.

But if you got everything to stay dry, what you could do is go right under the shore, repack, and you could do it as many times as you want to. So yes, it's possible. It doesn't sound very plausible. Again, I chose to answer that question because I don't know where people get this thought, other than probably just not knowing much about it, that they think you can just land a wingsuit, not recommended for long-term use. Question two. I'm having trouble finding the right side of this shitty situation. I just found out I am infertile.

I had taken multiple tests to see my sperm count and my doctor told me it was zero. What the fuck? I'm a healthy 28-year-old. I run regularly, and after multiple blood, hormone, and testosterone tests, I am in the highest percentile for men my age. And I only drink once in a while, and I went my whole dick-swinging days worried I was going to get someone pregnant, only to find out there was zero chance. Anyways, I went through this procedure to see if they could find some swimmers in my sack

using a very small microscope entering through my testicles. TMI, sorry. Yeah, we could have all been better having a lot. not had that included in the email. Also, and again, however, I just learned that that is actually a thing. I'm never ever allowing somebody to do that, but now I know that at least that's possible. So I look forward to that in my nightmares. To put it bluntly, I am less than 1% of males who have this condition. I am happily married and my wife is very set on starting a family. As am I. The kicker is. The only option we have is adoption or sperm donor. I'm having a

a lot of issues with these options purely due to the fact I have always wanted my own DNA to be passed down. I have spoken to my family, therapist, and friends about this topic, but I can't seem to be okay with anything less than the natural way of doing it. I know that children and fathers are defined, I know that children and fathers are defined by blood, but I'm really out to lunch with this. Anyways, any advice would be amazing, all the best. I think you meant to say I know that children and fathers are not defined by blood. Or maybe you did. I'm not sure. I could see both of those because I know plenty of people who didn't even know their real father but had father figures or somebody that they considered

to be their father. And then, of course, there's the genetic tie. You know, first, I'm sorry that you're in this situation. You just found out that you're shooting blanks and you're having an issue with it specifically with the goals that it seems like you and your wife have. I don't know of other options either. I mean, you need to, to my knowledge, you know, you need two ingredients in this recipe. You're going to need to sperm and an egg. I don't know a way around that. So obviously, yeah, like you said, you could get some elsewhere or come in later in the process where that recipe has already been completed and thrown in the oven. Where's the comment about DNA? I'm having a lot of

the issues with these options purely due to the fact I've always wanted my own DNA to be passed down. I'm going to give you some food for thought on this one. What if you were able to pass down your DNA? And then this hypothetical world that obviously doesn't exist. But just as a thought exercise, you're presented the option and you rub on a genie. You don't rub on a genie. You rub on a lamp and a genie comes out of it. And they say to you, this is a different story than the normal one with three wishes. This person says to you, this genie says to you, I can provide for you a child to allow your DNA to be passed down. However, comma, the DNA that you will pass down into this child, your child's going to actually be a serial killer or a mass murderer or somebody who tries to wipe off the face of the earth an entire portion of the human species. for whatever reason they choose to.

What choice would you make? I'm going to guess you would say, no, I'm not going to take that option. Do you have a plan B to offer me? And they would say no. And so therefore the offer would pass. Now, why is that the case? Why would you do that? Because it's not really about the DNA in that decision, right?

You're looking at the potential negative outcome and realizing that, holy shit, nothing is actually worth that. And now there's no guarantee that you, if you adopted, or did the sperm donor route, that that person may not be created. My point is, it's more about who you are as a person and how you're going to parent than it is necessarily about the DNA, at least in my opinion. I have given that choice. If I wasn't able to have kids and I was given that choice, I would choose not to have my DNA passed out, even though I know exactly where you're coming from.

So again, it was not really trying to make a point there more of, you know, maybe look it from this perspective and maybe realize that the DNA aspect isn't as important as you might think it would be. Let me see. If I had to choose sperm donor or adoption, which one would I go with? Personally, I would go with adoption because I know that there are children out there who are not going to get a great shot at life unless they are. Well, that's actually not a guarantee, but I suspect they will get a less good shot at life unless they have caring people around them and to help raise them and creating an environment that is based off of love, trust, integrity, facilitation, you know, all of the things that make the family or family

in general or the loving and raising of children an amazing thing. I would probably choose that because I know that right now there are already plenty of children out there that are in need of that. So bringing another child into the world would not be the choice that I would take because it would still, there would still be those other children out of that. It's a personal choice. I don't think either of them are wrong. If you want your legacy to be passed down, if you want your family name to be passed down, if you want to be remembered by those that loved you in the future when you are gone, I would recommend that you detach yourself to this seemingly deeply held belief about the DNA.

Because unfortunately, it doesn't sound like it's going to happen. So you're going to have to come to grips with the fact that you're shooting blanks and that the only two choices you have to continue the legacy of your family are going to be the two that you discussed. Sit down and maybe kick around the pros and cons. like I was just working my way through it in real time as to whether or not I'd go the sperm donor route or I'd go the adoption route. I don't think there's a right or a wrong answer. It depends on your situation. And obviously, you need to talk to your wife about this. Blood ties are great. But I know plenty of families. And to include in my own family where the blood tie and the DNA tie wasn't enough. And I was disowned by my own grandfather and didn't talk to him beyond the age of.

Man, how old was I? 10 or 11? It was shitty. It was worse for my dad because it was his dad. DNA didn't mean much then. Didn't mean shit, actually. So food for thought, I hope that that helps. Maybe just viewing it from a different angle

will give you a different perspective. The cool thing is, the good thing in all of this, is that you actually have options. If you had no options, I don't know what answer I would necessarily give you to the question, but I'd say you'd be far worse off when it came to at least things that you could consider. consider. Question three. Andy, I've been listening to your podcast for years now, and I very much

respect your opinion. I look at it as a positive male role model, as I did not have very many growing up. With that being said, I have come to a unique crossroad in my life at the ripe old age of 25. I started an electrical contracting business a few years back with success. I currently have two full-time employees and two subcontractors. The money isn't amazing, but it's pretty good at about 60K a year. It was fun in the beginning and exciting, but now has become extremely stressful, anxiety-inducing, and I dread work. I never get a break from the business or time to clear my head. I realized I don't have a passion for the electrical field anymore, and I think I fell in love with the thrill and excitement of business itself.

I'm currently contemplating whether or not I should continue down this path after some recent personal slash spiritual growth and challenges. My fiancé graduates with her master's degree at the end of this year. She and I would both like to move to South Carolina. Don't hate, I know you don't love the Carolinas, L.O.L. Well, first off, it's not that I dislike the Carolinas at all, but when people tee up softballs for me, I'm going to swing for the fences. The issue is, should I drop everything and close the business or sell it and pursue a new life 14 hours away? Hold on a sec. The issue is, should I drop everything, close the business, or sell it and pursue, okay, I got you. So do you close a business or do you sell it? It's been a long day, peeps.

Many people tell me I am a fool for giving up what could be a cash cow business one day. But I am happy or I am not happy and money no longer motivates me as it once did. I have another business idea that is unique and new to the world, which has personal ties to what I am passionate about. I will likely have to work a regular job while starting that until it takes off. Am I a fool for wanting to rid myself of a business that is thriving? I also rent, I have no kids, a good credit score and very little debt on auto loan. So I am not saddled down. Any of advice, any and all advice would be appreciated.

This is a great question. I have no issue with the question, but I hope that you realize when you wrote this, you framed this whole situation with only two options. Close it down or sell it off and move 15 hours or 14 hours away. My biggest piece of advice would be to explore, if you use, let's use those as polar opposites. Close it down. It's done. Sell it and move away. Both of those actually completely detach you from the business, and I suspect, and I really feel like there would be some great options in between both of those.

If it's currently providing you or inducing anxiety and dread of the work, then obviously I think you need to make a change. But I don't think it's uncommon for, you know, a new job to be exciting in the beginning and for it to lose a little bit of its luster along the way. As you age, you're what you want from life and what you like in life. They can absolutely change. So don't be too surprised about that. But I don't think you actually need to cut and run. If I look at myself in this situation and you're providing for yourself 60K a year of income right now. You know, as a real time, like thinking my way through this, is there a way that you could hire somebody to fill the role that you have right now and maybe pay them half of that or maybe pay them on commission?

The reason I say that is, is it would still allow you to maintain ownership of that asset, and it would probably reduce the regular job to use your term that you would need to do in your new endeavor. It would give you a little bit of a buffer. And so you would have something that is passive providing you income while you're building something that is more right in front of your face. And you're trying to build that new business, right? You're actively involved in that. To me, that would be more of a route that I would look at doing as opposed to just cutting and running on it. you know, could you sell it and have a good nest egg put away and then focus on your new endeavor?

You absolutely could. But what if that endeavor took longer than you thought it would? What if it took four or five times as long as you thought it would, but you're still passionate about it and you want to pursue it? That bank account gets closer to zero. It's going to start looking like, you know, less of a rosy situation. So I would say find a way to maintain some element of control and ownership over the asset and the revenue generating business. that you already have while also exploring what it is that you may want to do next. That is the advice I have given to myself, or I would have given to myself, is before just absolutely guillotining things off and starting fresh.

Start, you know, obviously, of course, if you have people working for or with you and you have people relying on you, or even just in general, make sure that the job you have, you're living up to your roles and responsibilities. Do not cheat from that to look off into the future. But in your off time, spend all of that off time. pursuing the next. And maybe then you'll realize, oh, I don't want to have anything to do with the electrical community anymore. So then you can sell it and move along and take that financial benefit. But at least there's no hiccups along the way. So you're giving yourself options. I would

write out, I would recommend to you five options. And like I said, you have polar opposites. Close it down, sell it off. Okay, that's good. Give me three more that are in between. And then I think it'll give you a better idea of what's actually possible. Are you a fool for wanting to rid yourself of a business that is thriving. I don't think that you're a fool, but I think in your 40s you would look back and try to give your advice or give advice to yourself at the age of 25. God, I wish I would have been able to rethink this because it truly can provide some of the benefits that I talked about. And right now, you know, it's a good thing that you, and I don't mean this in, I don't mean to put a value judgment on that statement. It's a

good thing that you're renting and have no kids and have a good credit score and a little bit of debt. What I mean by that is it gives you flexibility. So you have the opportunity to take risk, which means you could also take risk with how you maybe structure the deal you have with your company right now. Maybe pay somebody a little bit more and have them doing the lion's share of it. So you take a smaller stipend, but it's still helping you round that edges. You know, create a business structure with a person or an entity that would be going to be running that for you that maybe has some more longer term a benefit for you than short term because you have that time and you're not tied down. So there's a lot of things to think about. My biggest piece of advice

for you would be don't look at this in binary terms. These are my two options. That's it. Which one's better? Never put yourself into that situation. Always look for as many options and take the time necessary to consider those options and what they could potentially lead to as well. For me, one thing that helps with that hugely is writing stuff down. So I get notebooks and I'll write stuff out. And it's, it's amazing how I can connect the dots and how ideas come to me when I'm physically writing them down. I think you could probably do the same. I've seen apps on computers to do the same thing like brainstorming apps. Bottom line is committed to memory, I'm sorry, not to memory, commit it to a paper of some kind and really take the time to explore. You're young,

you got time, so take it. That's my advice. Question three. Andy have a two-part question about tattoos. The first relates to my 17-year-old son. He's a good kid, respectable student. student, solid athlete, who's competed at a high level in Jiu-Jitsu since he was eight. He recently said he and his friends want to get matching tattoos. It's a symbol that relates to a video game they all play. I'm a pretty chill person and parent, but my answer was no. The primary reason was that I knew he'd soon regret it. I also worried he'd immediately want another one and so on.

I said when he's an adult and paying his own way, he's free to do what he wants. He was upset, particularly given that some of his friends were allowed to get one. How would you have handled this type of situation with your kids? Secondly, how did you make it through 17 years in the military and not get the seemingly mandatory sleeve of ink? Again, I have nothing against tattoos. I've been in the BJJ world a long time, and many of my friends are inked head to toe. While I personally don't have tattoos, I can appreciate them. What is your view?

Well, let me tell you this. I was your son at some point in time. I wanted to get a tattoo when I was 17. And my parents said, get the fuck out of here. with that. But guess what happened when I turned 18? I went and got a sweet tattoo. Check out this tattoo on my right shoulder. This is a fiery ying yang that I got when I was 18 years old. And I remember coming home and showing it to my dad. He was just like, well, I'm not going to tell you exactly what he said. Essentially, it was this. Dumbass. But he didn't really have any judgment

with it because at that point in time, I was 18 years old. I was getting ready to go in the Navy. It was all tat it up. Ying yang, don't ask me why. I have no idea. Why is there fire around it? I guess because there has to be. It wouldn't be as cool if there wasn't, I suppose. I don't even remember the decision-making process that I haphazardly walked myself through to get this tattoo. But they would not let me get one until I was 18. And I actually would say the same thing to my kids.

But like, listen, until you're 18 years old, you know, there's a reason that they put age limits on things. And that's because they were at least trying to make sure you're at a certain level before you make decisions like this one. that could have lifelong effects. Now, obviously, you can get tattoos removed or you can get them covered up, but all of that takes additional work on top of it. So I think it's best in these situations to actually wait until the child is old enough

to make the decision for themselves. Is there a guarantee that they would regret the tattoo? Not really. I mean, I look at the Ying Yang tattoo. I don't really give a shit about it. I don't think about it much. I didn't think about it until you actually sent this email in. So it's not going to ruin their life.

I mean, if they get like a swastika on their face, that would probably ruin their life. And it's, of course, highly not advisable. But it wouldn't be life ending. But I think it would be best if they waited until they were of age to do so. So I would have followed in exactly the same footsteps that you did. None of my kids right now, though, have expressed any desires. Yeah, any desires to get a tattoo? And if they did, we'd have this very similar conversation.

It's very easy at their age to allow peer prayer, peer pressure to drift the needle of their compass. And I think that's where the role of the parent really helps. You know, you're absent that. And the peer pressure that they might be getting from other 17-year-olds might kind of be just a little bit laughable to those that are a little bit older. How did I make it through my 17 years in the military and not get the mandatory sleeve of ink? Let me just tell you by seeing other people get really, really, really bad ones. That'll do it. You want to reconsider getting some ink, watch people get shit tattoos and then have to deal with that.

So that kind of turned me off to it. Having said that, I actually want to get a three-quarter sleeve on my left arm to cover up the frog tattoo that I have. but I'm too much of a pussy to go get the laser removal because I heard that it hurts like a bitch. And right now I'm kind of more interested in not doing things that hurt like that. So if given the opportunity, though, I am going to get one. But I have a better understanding of who I am and the tattoo that I want to get would be very meaningful to me and who I believe I am and who I want to be. So much different than getting a sleeve at the age of 22, surrounded by the influence of others who are 22, and then looking back going, son of a bitch, what are my options to cover this up? But one of the best examples for me to not want to get those or tattoos like that is just seeing people get really shitty ones.

So it's not always a bad idea to have some of your friends get really, really shitty tattoos because you'll go, ooh, I'm not doing that. That's all I got. See you guys, Monday.