Lessons From Highway Driving

What can you learn about life and business from being behind the wheel? Listen as Jenna and James relate the complexities and challenges facing you in driving and relate them to building your business and improving your life.

Podcast Transcription:

Jenna [00:00:06]:

So last week, I’m driving down the highway to a retreat in a bigger city close by. And as I’m driving down the highway, this truck pulls in front of me to pass the car off to the right, but I stopped because not my car. I stopped mentally because a license plate said, do your your job, dourjob. And I thought it was so interesting and insightful because I was on my way to a business retreat, and it stopped me in my tracks mentally thinking, well, that’s really interesting. What’s the business lesson here? And then the rest of the drive, it got me thinking, what can we learn about business from highway driving?

James [00:00:47]:

Nice. That’s pretty cool. Welcome to Diary of a Worthy Pursuit.

Jenna [00:00:50]:

Where we talk about what you or how to get what you truly want in life and business.

James [00:00:54]:

So I love that you didn’t stop on the highway to check.

Jenna [00:00:56]:

Yeah, that would have been dangerous, but do your job.

James [00:00:59]:

That’s pretty slick because that’s very it’s straightforward.

Jenna [00:01:02]:

Yeah.

James [00:01:03]:

Don’t do anything else. Just do your job.

Jenna [00:01:05]:

Just do your job. But then it’s, what is your job?

James [00:01:07]:

Right?

Jenna [00:01:08]:

And so there’s this whole track, right. And as part of this conference, one of the things that I was pushed to do was evaluate my values and what are my personal values, what are my business values, and how do I want my clients to show up. What feels disrespectful to me if they’re not honoring and so one of mine may be subconsciously impacted by this license plate was extreme ownership. And this is a book by Jako Wilinik, who’s a Navy Seal. But I love this idea of just own it. Own your lane, own your zone. Right? And I think that that’s extremely insightful in a lot of different places. Whatever you commit to, own it and own it in your integrity. Do what you say you’re going to do. And I thought that’s just a great lesson, because if I’m going to serve clients, I’m going to own it. I’m going to serve them to the best of my ability. If I have a client who’s going to come to me to try to help me or for me to help them overcome some health challenge, I need them to own their actions, because they’re only going to get out of it what they put into it.

James [00:02:07]:

Right. No excuses, right? Just do your job.

Jenna [00:02:10]:

Just do your job.

James [00:02:11]:

Job is to follow the steps that I give you.

Jenna [00:02:13]:

Yes.

James [00:02:14]:

You have one job.

Jenna [00:02:15]:

One job.

James [00:02:15]:

One job. That’s awesome. All from a license plate.

Jenna [00:02:18]:

All from a license plate. But then we head down this road, right? What else can we learn about business from highway driving? So another one that I thought of was, well, I had to set in my GPS where I was going that day because this was an unfamiliar territory for me, so I had to choose my destination. And I think that’s extremely important in business because someone says, is it the Cheshire cat? If you don’t know where you’re going, anywhere will do. Right. Something to that effect. And it’s like, well, I didn’t want to go to any business conference. I wanted to go to this one. At this particular location, I paid to go. I need to use that. But I think so many times we’re like, oh, I’m just going to see where this business takes me and take it one day at a time. That’s great, but you may not go where you could go live into your potential if you don’t choose and call your shot. Set that destination.

James [00:03:07]:

Yeah. How do you know you got there if you don’t know where you’re going?

Jenna [00:03:09]:

Exactly.

James [00:03:10]:

It’s interesting because I’m thinking when I go for a motorcycle ride, sometimes I’ll intentionally get lost, and I’ll just know direction. Like, okay, sun’s over here, or if it’s a short trip, that water tower is over there. So I know more or less how to get back to where I’m going. But it’s kind of fun. But that’s not a routine. You go to work every day, or you go to school, drop off kids, whatever you’re going. It’s rarely that you get the chance or opportunity to get lost, because sometimes it takes way more time to get back than I anticipated.

Jenna [00:03:42]:

Right.

James [00:03:43]:

And sometimes I’m glad there’s a gas station, places and stuff like that, so you can kind of help figure it out. But it’s interesting that you have to typically have to have that destination in mind to know even if you’re on track.

Jenna [00:03:55]:

Right. Well, and then that comes back down to this idea of if you don’t know where you’re going, any way will work to get there. Right. So you want to choose your route, and you can recalibrate along the way. But for you, if you don’t have a particular destination, any old route will do. And some of us operate our businesses like this. I’ll try this for a little while, see how this goes. Try this for a little while, see how that goes.

James [00:04:16]:

Yeah. Or they just do day to day. Right?

Jenna [00:04:18]:

Yeah.

James [00:04:18]:

My destination is to survive the day instead of grow my business.

Jenna [00:04:23]:

Right, right.

James [00:04:24]:

So at the end of the day, you’re like, well, I survived. Do it again tomorrow. And then after a few years of that, you realize that you had towed.

Jenna [00:04:32]:

Right. But also the mental stress and, like, the stress back. I always picture it like a backpack, like, what kind of stress am I carrying around? Because that’s my mental track, where if I set my destination and I chose my route, I would have a better shot of getting there, and it’d probably be less stressful because it felt like I had a plan. That plan will change, but at least I had an idea.

James [00:04:53]:

You know, it’s interesting because when I first started my business, I didn’t know that you were supposed to grow a business. It was essentially I started a job is what it came down to. And so I was just like that. I was surviving every day, pure survival. And I don’t know what happened where I was like, this is dumb. This is just not I need to have a destination that’s further out, that’s going to take days or building upon your success to achieve it. It was just a weird I remember sitting back one day being like, this is dumb, why am I being so stressed out? Just like it feels like you’re a rat on a wheel. Yeah, just kind of thing where you’re moving, you’re doing a lot, you’re achieving, you survive the day and that’s your reward. You’re not dead.

Jenna [00:05:40]:

Well, but you got my wheels turning because then I’m thinking about so you said you’re thankful there’s a gas station where you could stop and maybe get some gas, maybe ask for some directions. But we all have this fancy technology in our pocket now where if I’m going on the highway and I don’t know where I’m going, I can ask for advice. And I think that that’s something that it takes us too long as business owners to ask for. Because we think we started this business, we should be able to figure this out.

James [00:06:04]:

I got this. I’m the best.

Jenna [00:06:06]:

Right? When you might be good at the thing you’re doing, but you may not know how to run a business or grow a business, or how to hire a salesperson, or how to do your books, there’s going to be plenty you don’t know how to do. But if we don’t ask for advice, we may not get there as quickly as we could.

James [00:06:21]:

Right? Totally true. Yeah. It’s funny you mentioned the phone thing because my buddies and I were up in the up on motorcycles and there’s no GPS.

Jenna [00:06:30]:

Like there’s no no signal whatsoever.

James [00:06:31]:

No signal? No. You’re in the middle of nowhere. If you see another person within, whatever, 2 hours of riding, it’s rare. And so it’s one of those things like you’re so used to relying on it in the city, but when you get in places where you don’t have signal, you better have a map, have some really good sense of direction.

Jenna [00:06:51]:

That’s a great point. And that brings up another lesson we have here for you is that idea that you have to plan for something to go wrong. There is always going to be some kind of problem. So you need to give yourself some buffer time and just expect that that’s going to happen. So my dad is spending some time in Canada every summer at a fishing resort. So we drive up once a summer and it’s a twelve hour drive but with two kids it’s rough. But so you hit the border and then you drive for another 6 hours and it’s extremely rural.

James [00:07:21]:

6 hours past the border.

Jenna [00:07:22]:

6 hours past the border, and it’s extremely rural. So you’re driving on a highway and there’s a sign that says, fill up here because the next gas station isn’t for another, like, 200 miles.

James [00:07:33]:

Oh, wow.

Jenna [00:07:33]:

Okay, so if you don’t plan, you’re kind of screwed. But also there’s this sign as you’re going, and it shocked me. It was, whatever, a diamond yellow sign, and it’s a moose charging. And you’re like, okay, so I’m not going to be driving at night because I don’t want to not see that thing coming at me. But also, what else do I need to do? Does my car need to be loud? Do I need different tires? Do you have my lights on? Do I need to be like, driving? What do I need to do to avoid that thing? But it’s so interesting because you never know what’s headed your way, especially if you’re in some rural area or some uncharted territory.

James [00:08:15]:

Yeah, we make it to a little north of Twin Cities a few times a year, especially in the summertime, because my wife’s family is from there and there’s always construction, right. Because two seasons in Wisconsin, right. And a lot of times that construction backs up and so we have to figure out I remember pre phone, we were looking at maps, and I always say, like, you’re in the navigator seats, you got to navigate. I’m driving. So find us a way out of this because I don’t want to sit in this. Right. If it takes ten minutes longer, I don’t care, as long as we’re moving, right. So my wife is always like, I don’t know how to read a map. But with GPS, she’s got it figured out because well figured out, she knows how to type it in.

Jenna [00:08:57]:

This is where we’re going.

James [00:08:58]:

And GPS just tells her where to go. Right, but it’s interesting. Now everybody has GPS, and I think a lot of people couldn’t read a map or didn’t take the time to read a map before because now you can tell where the map is telling everyone to go because all of a sudden that ramp will start backing up where before you could just sail. Right. Everyone’s on the interstate. I’m going on the interstate. This is where I’m going.

Jenna [00:09:21]:

This is the one way there.

James [00:09:22]:

This is the only way I know.

Jenna [00:09:23]:

Yeah.

James [00:09:23]:

So whether it’s not moving for the next five weeks, I’m right here.

Jenna [00:09:27]:

Right?

James [00:09:28]:

And now GPS reroutes. And we’re like, now we’re trapped in multiple places, kind of thing.

Jenna [00:09:34]:

But there’s so much wisdom to that because we’re going to run into something, there’s going to be some issues. So if we need to take a little detour to get around that issue but still end up where we need to go, that’s fine.

James [00:09:45]:

Yeah.

Jenna [00:09:46]:

So we add ten minutes to the journey, not a big deal, and you.

James [00:09:49]:

Get to see some new towns, right? And yeah, sometimes they’ll be like, you know what? Let’s just grab lunch at some little cafe in some dinky town and whatever, the tow trucks and fire trucks, whatever’s going on there.

Jenna [00:10:01]:

Or you run into someone from your town, like, 500 miles away, and you’re like, the world.

James [00:10:05]:

Oh, there you go.

Jenna [00:10:08]:

Yeah. So another lesson is just celebrate and recalibrate. So you get around the accident, you get around the detour. You show up where you are. Cool. You hit that goal. What’s next? And I know as business owners, sometimes we’re too quick to say, cool, I reached it. What’s next? What’s next? But actually celebrating the fact that, who, I made this I reached this destination.

James [00:10:28]:

Interesting.

Jenna [00:10:29]:

So celebrating one is great, but then two, then give yourself the opportunity to recalibrate. So what’s the next destination? How am I going to get there?

James [00:10:37]:

It’s so interesting that you said that, because in my mind, to celebrate and recalibrate was after you. Let’s just say you didn’t take a different exit. You get past the accident, I still see people slowly get up to going, and I’m like, I got to keep my numbers up. Floor of the gas. Way to go. The police are busy back there. We have open road here. Like, sail, man, just sail. And I like to celebrate there. My wife is like, what are you doing? And I always answer, keeping my numbers up. So it’s interesting because that’s what I was doing was celebrating and recalibrating. But you’re taking different directions.

Jenna [00:11:08]:

I’m taking it. But I’m glad that there’s another way about that, too. So talk to me, though. One of the lessons you said was something about keep right or if you want to keep moving.

James [00:11:23]:

Yeah. So let’s see here. The lead follower, get out of the way.

Jenna [00:11:26]:

Yeah, I love that.

James [00:11:27]:

So lead follower, get out of the way. To me, means, like, when you’re on the interstate, let’s say you can be in a crew of cars, and I don’t know if you’ve ever been in that. Usually it’s like, two or three cars.

Jenna [00:11:37]:

Yeah. My driver’s ed teacher called it the wolf pack.

James [00:11:39]:

The wolf pack.

Jenna [00:11:40]:

You have to get past the wolf pack.

James [00:11:42]:

Past the wolf pack. Okay. I’m usually with a wolf pack that’s passing. Oh, I remember going to I drove to Eau Claire, and I think I made it in 2 hours and ten minutes because it was me and this other car from Illinois. And they had passed me. I thought I was going pretty fast. They passed me faster, and I’m like, okay, and you’re not going crazy, like, right on their bumper or anything. You just driving. So you have the few seconds between, but we’re just moving. And I love it when they’re using their turn signal. They’re making good, smart lane changes. They’re looking ahead of the road so they can see, like, semi is coming up there. I got to get on the throttle a little larger or a little more because I know that there’s traffic that’s going to move over into the passing lane to let that semi in. You got to get ahead of them before this is an issue. Like when you’re following a smart driver, it’s relaxing and it’s entertaining. Instead, sometimes you’ll get people and they’ll pass you and you’d be like, okay, we can do that. And then they’re psycho crazy, and they’re not using their turn signal. They’re passing on the meat or gravel and stuff like that. And you’re like, no, you go ahead. I’ll see you upside down in about ten minutes. Please have at her.

Jenna [00:12:48]:

But you’re finding an accountability, buddy. You’re finding someone to take the route with you. And I think it’s also a lesson. Who do you trust? I see this too, in snowstorms. We live in Wisconsin, and I hate driving in snow, especially if it’s really coming down, if I can’t see what’s in front of me. So I will go 15. I’m that super slow driver in snow. I have four wheel drive, so I’m okay. But if there’s a car in front of me, if I can just see the tail lights, then at least I know about where the road is because I’m always nervous, like there’s going to be a turn in the road and I’m not going to go straight. And so I’m just going to keep going. I’m going to end up stuck, right. So if I’m going it alone, I’m going slow, I’m being more careful. But if I have a buddy in front of me to see where the road is going, I’m a little bit more aggressive. So I think that that’s interesting too, because either way, if you have someone in front of you that you trust, it’s a lot easier to be more aggressive.

James [00:13:41]:

Right. You’re talking about the snow that looks like the Star Wars light speed.

Jenna [00:13:45]:

Yes.

James [00:13:46]:

Your headlights are reflecting and all you see are the two little tail lights. I hope you’re still on the road because I’m following you.

Jenna [00:13:53]:

And if you’re in a ditch, I’m going to be following you right on the ditch.

James [00:13:57]:

Yeah, that’s totally fair. My rule for that is if you can’t go 40, you shouldn’t be driving.

Jenna [00:14:03]:

There’ll be a lot of times on the road where you’re there, I shouldn’t be driving.

James [00:14:06]:

Well, it’s one of those from a safety point of view, yes. If I can’t go 40, not that I intelligently shouldn’t be driving. It’s not safe to drive. Just pull off the road and let the snow pass or just whatever. Sometimes you have to get a hotel.

Jenna [00:14:22]:

Yeah, whatever.

James [00:14:23]:

I’ve had that before because otherwise you’re going 20 miles an hour and you still got 6 hours to go.

Jenna [00:14:27]:

That is a really good standard. I really like that standard.

James [00:14:30]:

Yeah, it’s just one of those I’ve made up the rule in my head and that was the whole standard thing. Like you talked about before, right? So if you can’t go 40, don’t be on the road.

Jenna [00:14:38]:

Yeah, I think that’s a great lesson for all of us. So you mentioned this a little bit here, too, but I think that there’s a lesson in turn signals.

James [00:14:47]:

Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. I have a bumper sticker that I made, and I’ve had so many people ask me for a copy. It says turn signals. Not just for talented drivers. Even coming in here, coming into the media center here, I’m turning right to get in, and there’s a guy stopped on the left lane. It’s obvious ish that he’s turning into the driveway, but he had no turn signal, so there’s a pretty close intersection. So if somebody would have came around the corner and he was rolling where he didn’t have his brake lights on, he would have gotten rear ended, and the other person probably would have gotten a ticket for inattentive driving or something like that. Who’s in the wrong? This guy didn’t have his turn signal on, and it was like after I looked at him, then he turns his turn signal on. I’m like, oh, nice. If you have to think about it, that means that it’s not muscle memory. It’s not muscle memory. This guy looked like he’s 90 years old. So, like, you should have it be muscle memory by now. Yeah, so it’s one of the ones I can see it all the time. Four way stops when people are like, oh, yeah, by the way, I’m turning left. By the way, I’m going to be in everyone’s way, and I’m not telling them. Are you a moron? What is wrong with you?

Jenna [00:15:54]:

Well, but I think what’s really interesting about this is that you have to communicate to others around you where you’re going.

James [00:16:00]:

Right.

Jenna [00:16:01]:

But you also have to call your shot.

James [00:16:02]:

It’s called shot. It’s like in pool, right?

Jenna [00:16:04]:

Exactly.

James [00:16:05]:

Like, bam, balls go in you’re like, I meant to do that. Did you really?

Jenna [00:16:10]:

Right. That’s how my five year old plays pool, right?

James [00:16:13]:

That’s how five year old would drive.

Jenna [00:16:15]:

Right?

James [00:16:15]:

You should have known where I was going. And I feel it’s kind of neat with the lane deviation stuff that they have on cars now, or if you don’t use your signal, it’s like, hey, you’re moving out of the lane. The steering wheel vibrates or whatever. So I hope that’s teaching people to use your turn signal because you believe that everyone can read your mind. We can’t, right? A lot of times I feel like your mind’s too small for me to read. Can’t help you.

Jenna [00:16:41]:

Okay. Not that, but in marriage, too, though, I don’t want to say that your spouse has a small mind, but this is a good, safe place. This is a good life lesson in general, right? Because I don’t know how many times in relationships, not just in my main relationship, but I can’t read what you’re thinking. Right? So you need to be part of our wedding vows. We wrote strategically to say, communicate fully and fearlessly, because if you don’t, I can’t read your mind, and we could be headed in completely different directions, because I think this is our goal, and you think this is our goal, and we’re achieving it in two different ways. And whoa, are we off.

James [00:17:19]:

Tell me it again. Fully and fearless.

Jenna [00:17:20]:

Communicate fully and fearlessly.

James [00:17:22]:

Interesting. I like that.

Jenna [00:17:23]:

Yeah.

James [00:17:23]:

I should go back to my wife and add that to our vows.

Jenna [00:17:26]:

Can you do that? It should be a commitment. I also feel like with driving, right? Yeah.

James [00:17:31]:

All right.

Jenna [00:17:32]:

And business employees, I mean, there’s so much there’s so much they could give.

James [00:17:36]:

Oh, my gosh.

Jenna [00:17:37]:

All right, so more lessons from highway driving. Smooth or slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. This sounds like a stick shift lesson.

James [00:17:46]:

Tell us.

Jenna [00:17:46]:

Talk to me about this.

James [00:17:47]:

Yeah. That’s the whole thing is right when you get on the hill, when you’re in a manual transmission I remember the first time I was in a manual transmission car, like, driving not a buddy’s car in their driveway or something like that, but actually legitimate. I had a job at a Napa Auto Parts as a delivery driver.

Jenna [00:18:05]:

All right.

James [00:18:05]:

And they only had stick shift vehicles.

Jenna [00:18:07]:

Sure.

James [00:18:08]:

And I didn’t know this, so I got the job, right? Super awesome. James, it’s your first delivery, and I get in the truck as a little S Ten. S ten pickup. And I’m like, oh, no. And I go back in. I felt so embarrassed. I’m like, hey, funny story. I don’t know how to drive a stick. And they’re like, no big deal. We got dirt in the back, right? They got, I don’t know, like, a half a city block. That’s just dirt. Just drive it around there for five minutes. You’ll be fine. And so I’m like, all right. So I drove around this rutted dirt and kind of figured it out. And I didn’t know things like hills were more of a challenge, right? But I also liked cars, and I liked fast cars, so I erred on the side of burning out, right? Like, you’re on a hill, you can either stall it or burn out, right? I’d rather burn out. So this little S Ten, 2.5 liter, four cylinder, no power, but in first gear, you can kind of fake it.

Jenna [00:19:03]:

Yeah.

James [00:19:03]:

So and I remember being at this light, and I’m on this hill, and a person pulls up to me, and it looks like they’re touching my bumper. And I’m like, Dude, you should know better. But they don’t know, right? They’re in their little automatic they don’t know. So I had to just feather the clutch and the brake and the gas and try to figure that out. And after you do it a few times, then it’s fun, right? It’s super fun.

Jenna [00:19:27]:

It’s a game.

James [00:19:27]:

Yeah, totally. A game. And then shifting without getting that jerking motion and stuff like that. It’s just once you can get it smooth, then you’re way faster.

Jenna [00:19:37]:

Yeah.

James [00:19:38]:

I did Autocross, and I remember watching a guy go around the track, and I’m like, he looks like he’s going so slow. Best time.

Jenna [00:19:46]:

That’s crazy.

James [00:19:47]:

He was so smooth. You didn’t hear the tires just screaming or singing, which when I was driving, you heard the tires singing. And I was not that fast. And I was like, that doesn’t seem as much fun. But the goal in Autocross is to beat the clock. He won.

Jenna [00:20:03]:

That crazy.

James [00:20:04]:

It was surreal. Yeah, it’s pretty cool.

Jenna [00:20:07]:

Oh, I love that, that idea. I mean, you hear people say slow down to speed up, and you’re like, what the heck? Right? But being more intentional about how you’re doing it. I also think there’s a lesson here in knowing your operating system. What are you working with? You got to know at the beginning, right? Or what are other people working with, too? That’s helpful. So I have a different story. I was driving an automatic with my mom. She had this intrepid, 90s intrepid, all right? And we grew up in the country, so if we ran out of milk every once in a while, we’d go and we’d just my uncle milk cows. We’d go dip some milk out of the milk tank and have milk until we could make it to the store again because I was 15 minutes away. So we went and did this. And I’m probably 1415, we’re driving a half mile to my uncle’s and back. Well, the farm driveway was like this, and so we’re driving out. My mom’s got an open pitcher of milk. You can see where this is going. And so I stopped because there was a car coming, and so we’re stopped on a hill. She’s got an automatic car, but I don’t know that my dad drives an automatic truck, and so I just assume or I’m sorry, a stick shift truck. And so I watch him drive, and the example he sets is like, he rolls back, and then he rolls forward and cool. Go. I’m like, okay. So when I go, I’ve got to gun this because otherwise we’re going to roll. That’s not a good idea. Because then I gunned it and the milk all over my body. She was so upset. It was like, I didn’t know my operating system didn’t know what I was working with. I only learned that only had to learn that lesson. Yeah, that’s funny.

James [00:21:38]:

I suppose the worst part is just the smell of rotten milk.

Jenna [00:21:40]:

Oh, yeah. Then she made me clean the car with a shampoo.

James [00:21:43]:

Never clean. Just sell the car. It’s never going to be clean again.

Jenna [00:21:47]:

Yeah, you would know.

James [00:21:48]:

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I had an employee, this was years ago, his son spilled a milkshake. I think he took that to a detail shop six times because it was under the seat and it was just like you opened the door.

Jenna [00:22:01]:

Can’t get rid of that rotting milk.

James [00:22:02]:

I’m like, how long ago was it? Yeah, six weeks. Kids, man, what are you going to do, man?

Jenna [00:22:10]:

Can’t have nice things, right?

James [00:22:14]:

The other one is let the engine sing. This is kind of fun. So car guy, I like to hear the engines and just it’s one of those things. I feel like it’s visceral, but it’s also you can tell what the engine is doing and it’s kind of talking to you. So I don’t know if you get this or you just like, car is going to go. You’ll have to tell me.

Jenna [00:22:33]:

I’m the car is going to go, girl, but you can tell me.

James [00:22:36]:

Oh, my gosh. It’s interesting because especially with motorcycles, you can just tell when you’re going fast. You don’t want to stare at your tack because you want to be looking at the road.

Jenna [00:22:48]:

Sure.

James [00:22:48]:

Because if something’s in the road when you’re looking at your tack, you’re going to have a bad day. And it’s not just like, oh, there’s a bump. It’s more like, hey, I’m flying through the air, right? And I’m going to land sometime. Not in a good spot. So you have to listen to the engine and kind of get a feel for where’s your shift point and where should you be, depending upon the corner. Because you’re also using your engine to slow you down in corners sometimes. So just understanding to listen to your engine, it’ll tell you what’s going on. Plus, usually they sound so nice. That’s why I think a lot of people put on loud exhaust because especially on motorcycles, it just sounds super cool and you feel like you’re one with that vehicle.

Jenna [00:23:26]:

Yeah.

James [00:23:27]:

So same thing with your business. Things are moving well, oiled machine, and you kind of have your ear to it, you know what’s going on. It’s cool.

Jenna [00:23:33]:

I also think there’s a lesson here of listening to your intuition, right? So you have operated motorcycle enough where you know when something’s going to throw you off or you can hear something before it’s going to happen. And I think some of us, we get that little nagging feeling or that little voice inside that like, this doesn’t feel right. Oh, maybe this person isn’t the right person to partner with. Oh, I don’t know about this client. Something goes off, but you don’t listen and you keep pushing. And then you’re like, oh, turns out I should have listened because that client was a pain in the butt. Or I didn’t make any money on them. I actually paid them to work with me. So I think it helps in that way. But also I think it helps in knowing when to hit the brakes. So many of us push, push, push, because we have these big goals of what society defines as success, not what we define it. As then we need to back off and be like, hey, I’m pushing too hard, and if I keep going, I’m going to crash. I need a minute from me. I need to rest. I need to recharge. I need to fill up the family cup, whatever that is, so I can come back and make sure that this is going the way it should, right?

James [00:24:35]:

Having your ear to do it, you know, it’s interesting. I had a oh, man, what was that? 1978 Chevy Malibu piece of junk. I think I paid $150 for it and sold it for 100 whatever. Back in the day. Anyways, I was driving that thing from Twin Cities to Eau Claire with somebody. It was late at night. I forget where we come from, partying with some friends, whatever, and that thing used oil. It just burned it, ripped it. It was $150 car, right? Anyways, I remember driving. I was so tired, but I could just tell from listening to the engine that something was wrong. So I’m like, guys, we got to stop. I got to pick up some oil. And they’re like, what do you mean? We’re 20 miles away. And all I could think is, well, if we don’t pick up oil and it needs oil, we’re not going to make it 20 miles. Yeah, and if we stop and it doesn’t need oil, we’re fine either way. So anyways, we pull into this gas station, we get some way overpriced oil, and I pull the dipstick, and the dipstick is hot, and there’s no oil on the dipstick.

Jenna [00:25:33]:

Oh, no.

James [00:25:34]:

So I’m like, I would have destroyed my only car, which happened to be $150, right?

Jenna [00:25:39]:

But still.

James [00:25:39]:

And I was at a point in my life where $150 car was what I could afford, which is not a good place to be. So anyways, I put oil in it and I remember listening to the engine like how different it sound did between because we start out in the cities, it was fine and then you could hear the clack and whatever and it wasn’t obnoxiously loud or anything like that but it was enough to think, oh, that was safe, right?

Jenna [00:26:02]:

Well, or you could have the opposite where, like, my car used to overheat. I had a 1989 Dodge Spirit.

James [00:26:10]:

Oh, wow.

Jenna [00:26:10]:

Yeah, real cool car. It used to jump start when you hit the accelerator. That’s probably why I had issues with automatic cars. But anyway, I pulled off and it overheated. It wasn’t even a hot day. And so it’s like, oh, something’s not right here. Something’s not right here. But I waited too long. So the opposite could have happened to you, where, like, I waited too long. And as we slowed down to pull into some gas station, steam and smoke just rolling off the hood, and you’re like, well, we waited too long, and now it’s going to sit here and.

James [00:26:38]:

It’S going to be killing.

Jenna [00:26:39]:

Right? Success lesson guys.

James [00:26:44]:

That’s funny.

Jenna [00:26:44]:

Yeah.

James [00:26:45]:

What else do we have? Here another one. Drop a gear and disappear. This is fun. This just speaks to you wanting to pass or whatever? Yeah, just going. This is a motorcycle saying. That’s pretty sweet.

Jenna [00:26:57]:

What does it mean for those of us who aren’t as familiar?

James [00:26:59]:

So, motorcycle, you shift with your left foot.

Jenna [00:27:02]:

Okay?

James [00:27:03]:

Unless you’re a crazy old motorcycle, but most motorcycles, you’re shifting with your left foot and you’re shifting down to shift down and clicking up to shift up. So when you’re in high gear, if you want to go faster with a lot of motorcycles, you just click down one or two and then get on the throttle. And it’s almost like teleporting. Because they’re so fast. Yeah, because you’re revving that engine. I mean, it’s insane. That’s why people wrap them around trees sometimes, right. But it’s interesting because you can be in traffic, and then you’re just like click, lick boom. And you can get out of traffic faster than just what any car would ever even dream of. Like someone’s not even physically possible for them. So it’s kind of cool because then you’re just like, I’m out of here. I’m going to choose a different crowd to be with.

Jenna [00:27:48]:

A different lane, a different crowd. Well, I also think, too, it speaks to this idea of, like, when you find your zone of genius and you find the right path, you just, boom, you’re gone. When you hit the zone, you can make so much more progress than trying to just chug along with that wolf pack that you’re stuck in.

James [00:28:05]:

Yeah, the zone.

Jenna [00:28:06]:

I love that.

James [00:28:07]:

Smooth, fast, awesome.

Jenna [00:28:10]:

So we can learn so much about business from highway driving. I’m sure you have some lessons that you could teach. We did not talk about the rage today, because but ultimately, I think that there’s a lot we can learn here. So next time you’re on the highway, try to pay attention. Draw to your business and see what you can learn.

James [00:28:27]:

And use your turn signal.

Jenna [00:28:28]:

And use your turn signal.

James [00:28:30]:

Please, for the love of God, use your turn signal.

Jenna [00:28:32]:

All right. This has been Diary of a Worthy pursuit.

James [00:28:34]:

How to get what you truly want in life and business.

Jenna [00:28:37]:

And if you enjoyed this, will you please share it? We look forward to seeing you next time you.