Porsche Driving Experience Revisted

Somehow, some way, one or both of them are going to have to flinch, acquiesce, or care enough about the greater good to accept they may not be right and veer to one side or another. Too often, they don’t, and trauma occurs. 

This is true on teams, in families, and in relationships of all kinds. As I was thinking about a few situations this morning, I was reminded of an experience I enjoyed several years ago. Be careful what you focus on; your actions will follow. Focus on you, you get more of your own limitations; focus on the team, you get progress (if it’s the right team). Focus on the pain and feel more pain, focus on healing, and you may just get somewhere.

January 2022:

Just outside of Birmingham, AL, on almost 900 acres, is Barber Motorsports Park. This park has several impressive features, including one of the largest motorcycle collections in the world, a configurable "proving grounds" for driver training, a 6-turn, 2.4-mile track that hosts Indy car races (and many other formats), and, most recently, it added a piece of my heart. I'm not a car guy. I don't like watching racing. I always found the sport boring and never understood it as a "sport".  That is, until I climbed out of a car last weekend on a frigid winter day, sweaty and exhausted after completing another session of driver training around the track. WOW! (Don't judge what you don't understand.)

I had the pleasure of joining a team of our Chairman's Club qualifiers from Nashville at the Porsche driving experience. During this 8-hour, mentally and physically exhausting day, we were trained on how to drive and control the car in more ways to write about. We learned that the most important pedal in the vehicle is the brake, to brake at the right places and to brake HARD. We learned how to enter a corner, weight distribution, hand position, oversteering and understeering, controlled skids, and just how fast we were capable of driving (I topped out at 122). It was invigorating! The most important lesson, however, was eye placement. The car follows your eyes. You have to keep your eyes up and laser-focused on where you want to go. (If you look down to check your speed, you just may smack the car in front of you as I did). The instructors were constantly reminding us to look further down the track, find your mark, set the car, and then look for the next one.  If you want to avoid the guardrail, stop looking at it. Where your eyes go, so does the car. It's the same with you!

"Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil." (Proverbs 4:25-27)

Where your eyes go, your feet will follow.

As we are all racing through life, if we aren't careful where we set our focus, we can crash and burn in a split second. Keep your eyes on the right mark. You have to keep looking down the track and not on the distraction right in front of you. The better you are at seeing your next mark and staying on that path, the safer and faster your life will progress. There's a lot of danger that will draw you in if you allow it by not bouncing your eyes.  

It's the same with your business. I've seen so many people get focused on the problem in front of them that they just keep speeding into it and making it worse. You need to learn to brake hard, set a new mark, and accelerate towards it. Issues happen, people disagree with you, balls get dropped. Stop being sucked in. Turn and keep moving forward. Where your eyes go, your business and team will follow.  

Stop picturing the crash and start focusing on the destination.