WHY, did you fail?... WHY, are you succeeding?

A wise person once said......"How bad do you want it". Another said....."Just do it". Really, success and failure come down to these two mind sets. Many people are far too concerned worrying what others have to say. You want to be in business for yourself and/or run your own company or perhaps be successful.......BE ORIGINAL!! Sure there are many "old timers" (in every industry) more then willing to share their "secrets to success". Great. Listen. Yet at the end of the day how bad do you want it? Are you doing it? Or are you letting so called "experts" control your destiny? Success AND failure begins and ends with the person in the mirror.

So, what's worked for me? I stopped listening to those who didn't have what I wanted. I stopped listening to the "experts" with "great" advice and ALWAYS have something to sell. I started talking to, observing, reading about the people who had what I wanted. Success is tough, #### tough. It takes a mentally tough person to be successful. Mental toughness is a must. You can spot a failure a mile away......he's always complaining, blaming others, blaming circumstances he's chosen NOT to control, he isn't nice, he isn't comfortable being original, he's usually the first (and loudest) to give advice and he's certainly not mentally tough just to name a few.

 

Yes my company is an LLC is just the truck and trailer. Wife and I team drive.




The broker sets up a weeks worth of loads at a time for us to run. They understand the hours of service and set up our loads according to what can be done in the real world. They never set us up to where we need to rush, but still get a good amount of miles. They have preset routs and we get bakery #1, bakery#2, or juice #4 unless we ask for a change.


Once we accept the weeks worth of loads they email us the paperwork the day before we need it and scan /email the paperwork back when we finish the loads. They help handle any issues that come up during the week.


Every Wednesday they pay us for the week before. We were paid 1 day late in 5 years.
They provide t-shirts, but don't have to use them. We must look and smell "nice and clean".
We also have to keep our truck and trailer clean unless there are weather issues.
They pay $50 for any load that should need a wash out.
They belong to a fuel discount club and we have to pay $100 a year for our fuel cards. Most of the time it's.30 to .50 cents cheaper than the cash at a truck stop, but limited places we can fuel.

 

I think the biggest reason why most fail is because they buy more truck than their limited experience is capable of paying for. When I bought my first truck 11.5 years ago I paid $30,000 for it, drove it for just a few months and traded it off for a $54,000 truck, that was a big mistake, I learned from that truck to download the computer and take oil samples to see how it had been driven. I had a bolt that held down the jakes break off coming home, got it to the Detroit shop to get it fixed, when I returned to pick it up a couple of days later is when they showed me the report from the ecm, it had recorded 2750rpm for three miles at over 100mph, we figured someone came off a hill a little to quick.

That truck a few more months down the road had the bearing for the input shaft come apart, which locked up the transmission, destroyed the clutch, and bent the crank in the motor. That ended up costing me alot of money, not just to get it fixed, but had three weeks down time on top of it. Block had to be sent off to be line bored, and waited for parts. Everyone I knew said that I should just give up and let the bank have it back. But my word is my word, when I signed those loan papers I fully intended to give that bank their money back. That and I am just to dang stubborn to roll over and play dead.

In 2006 I bought my beloved W900L, and still drive it, this will be the last truck I ever own. My heart just isn't in this business like it used to be, I have two other business's that I am actively pursuing. But owning my own truck, and now trailer has been the best thing financially I have ever done. It has provided things (cars, house, vacations) that I would have never otherwise had the oppurtunity to have.

Moral of the story is, search deep down into yourself and be for certain that this is what you want to do. If it is, never take no for an answer, listen to anyone who is willing to give you advice and take it with a grain of salt, not all advice is good advice, and never ever give up. You will only be as successful as you let yourself be.

 

You can write a book for this question. And what is interesting is that you can sit back and read what worked for someone and think that is the worst advice in the world. But it is what they think worked for them.

Two biggest issues I see in failure or not having the success someone could have.

1. Customer service - there are a lot of unhappy people and unethical people in this business. Don't let them get to you or turn you into one of them. This is not about driving from point a to point b. This is about the service - you would not pay Nordstrom prices for Walmart quality and attitude. Well, your customer won't either. And this applies to the carrier you are leased to as well.

2. Look at every opportunity. Few will be for you but don't fear change, embrace it. It is scary the number if "business owners" that put more energy into fighting change and tearing something down rather than give something a chance.

Foot Note: Regarding the post of listening to those that have done it. I agree you need to listen but also apply logic, reasoning and analysis to what you learn. Had I listened to the "old times", Farm2Fleet would not here. We would not be running with over 50 units. Won any awards. etc. Because we got to the size that I could hire a dedicated business development person, this week alone we have more bid opportunities for good paying freight than we ever had in a quarter.

So listen but question respectfully. For me, the old timers couldn't answer my questions with anything more than throwing out how long they have been doing this or how old their MC# was. Great, my dad worked in computers in the '70's and they used those punch cards to program computers. Things change - how does the older timers experience apply to todays world? That is what you need to get to.

And doing that is not being ####y, or ignorant or foolish. It is called being a business person and gaining all the experience you can and applying it to todays market.

 

I agree with what you write here.But you must of not met the ''right'' old timers...The old timers i new and learned from had at minimum 20 trucks,direct customers and drivers.They even taught you how to ''fix'' your own truck and maintain it.The only thing i choose not to do was get my own Auth and hire drivers..That just seems like to much work and headache for me..So i settled into L/S and it's easy money.