What Would You Tell Your Kid As They Walked Out The Door For Truck Driving School?

Brett, I had plenty of time to think about this topic today while driving, and I want to add something to what I contributed earlier, which was the following statement...

Where you start is of very little consequence to your success. How you start is what will set the direction of your future trucking career.

Knowing my kids, they would want to know what I mean by the phrase, "How you start." So, I would explain it like this to them:

I want you to realize that there are going to be a lot of ups and downs when trying to get started in this career as a professional driver. It is a veritable roller coaster ride of emotions. There will be times of excitement, frustrations, victories, and failures. Sometimes the opposite extremes are experienced within moments of each other, and often times the changes come so abruptly that it is alarming at times. It is one of the many things about getting started at this that catches people completely off guard. People end up wanting to throw in the towel quickly because they were totally unprepared for the ups and downs and the various twists and turns that take place not only during that first few weeks of training, but also during their first two or three months of being a rookie solo driver. So... I want you to recall how when I would take you to an amusement park you always approached a roller coaster ride with full abandonment of your fears, and you simply trusted the whole process of riding in a roller coaster. You ignored your friends who told you how bad it was going to be, and it never really mattered to you that you had not ridden a particular roller coaster before, you just went for it and wanted to always be in the front seat with your hands up in the air enjoying the ride. That is how I want you to approach this new career. Trust the process, and enjoy the ride!

It may get a little rough at times, but it will get better as you get accustomed to it. Hang in there until the ride is over, and as far as I am concerned that means stay with it for one full year. At that point you will have gotten enough of the roller coaster experiences under your belt that you know what to expect when the next change is about to take place in the ride. You are about to get on the most challenging roller coaster you have ever been on, and as with most new roller coaster rides, it is going to be so rewarding that you are going to want to keep on riding it over and over again.

Focus on the task at hand. If you are working on your pretrip dont worry about what is happening on the skills range etc. You cant move on if you dont master each step.

Brett, I had plenty of time to think about this topic today while driving, and I want to add something to what I contributed earlier, which was the following statement...

Where you start is of very little consequence to your success. How you start is what will set the direction of your future trucking career.

Knowing my kids, they would want to know what I mean by the phrase, "How you start." So, I would explain it like this to them:

I want you to realize that there are going to be a lot of ups and downs when trying to get started in this career as a professional driver. It is a veritable roller coaster ride of emotions. There will be times of excitement, frustrations, victories, and failures. Sometimes the opposite extremes are experienced within moments of each other, and often times the changes come so abruptly that it is alarming at times. It is one of the many things about getting started at this that catches people completely off guard. People end up wanting to throw in the towel quickly because they were totally unprepared for the ups and downs and the various twists and turns that take place not only during that first few weeks of training, but also during their first two or three months of being a rookie solo driver. So... I want you to recall how when I would take you to an amusement park you always approached a roller coaster ride with full abandonment of your fears, and you simply trusted the whole process of riding in a roller coaster. You ignored your friends who told you how bad it was going to be, and it never really mattered to you that you had not ridden a particular roller coaster before, you just went for it and wanted to always be in the front seat with your hands up in the air enjoying the ride. That is how I want you to approach this new career. Trust the process, and enjoy the ride!

It may get a little rough at times, but it will get better as you get accustomed to it. Hang in there until the ride is over, and as far as I am concerned that means stay with it for one full year. At that point you will have gotten enough of the roller coaster experiences under your belt that you know what to expect when the next change is about to take place in the ride. You are about to get on the most challenging roller coaster you have ever been on, and as with most new roller coaster rides, it is going to be so rewarding that you are going to want to keep on riding it over and over again.

I wish I was this good with words! You and Brett and G-Town for sure know the right words. I sometimes struggle to find them. I guess when I obtain yalls level of experience then I will be able to. I dont know.