A successful career as an owner-operator or company driver can take a toll on you physically and mentally. Faced with increased regulations, scrutiny, false perceptions, and dishonesty, it may seem like the industry and society are against you, at times.
Facing negativity is almost a certainty, there’s not much you can do about that — not just in the trucking industry, but in life.
What really determines your success is how you choose to deal with the criticism and stress — take for example this exchange between two legendary auto makers, Enzo Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini.
In January 1991, two years before his death, Thoroughbred & Classic Cars interviewed Lamborghini at his vineyards, near Lake Trasimeno in middle Italy. The property also housed a Lamborghini museum and a winery.
Surprisingly, they found the wealthy 75-year-old working in the fields. He told them that he saw no reason to stop working and believed that “when you stop working, you start to die!”
He invited them back to his apartment where he served them coffee and they chatted about cars. Lamborghini told them how his first car was a Fiat Topolino and from there, he had tried all cars. But he stated that of all the ones he drove, he preferred to drive a Ferrari.
He said he owned three or four Ferraris over the years, and although they were very good cars, they always had clutch problems. He went on to say that you couldn’t “drive them hard” without the clutch slipping.
Even though he had the clutches rebuilt numerous times, it never fixed the problem. So he decided to talk to Enzo Ferrari about his frustration. When the two met, Lamborghini unleashed his anger yelling, “Ferrari, your cars are rubbish!” Ferrari became enraged and screamed back, “Lamborghini, you may be able to drive a tractor, but you will never be able to handle a Ferrari properly!”
Lamborghini said, “that was the day I decided to make the perfect car.” When asked if he ever had contact with Ferrari again, Lamborghini said that he saw him one day at a restaurant, but Ferrari turned away, pretending not to see him.
Then, Lamborghini smiled and said, “He was a great man, I admit, but it was so very easy to upset him.”