Forty stories up, a ratchet in his hand — this is the guy writing to you. Dutch spent a career in the sheet metal trade, on job sites most people never see and wouldn't survive. Words to My Apprentice is what he'd tell you if you were standing next to him on that scaffold: 24 short, plainspoken lessons on technique, mindset, and the hard-won parts of trade work nobody puts in a manual — plus an appendix on what the different trades actually do, for anyone still deciding. This isn't a sales pitch for the trades. It's the truth about the hard parts, the family you gain, and why a real look at this path is worth taking. If it's truthful, it spreads.