There’s only one thing I can think of that’s worse than being in your car and on your way to the airport at three-thirty in the morning for a six a.m. flight and that is finding yourself in a hotel shuttle van on your way back to the airport at four o’clock in the morning for a six o’clock flight home  some forty-nine hours later.

The six o’clock flight home isn’t the bad part… It’s the traveling in general, the airports and the traffic (Yes! There IS traffic on the 405… even at three-thirty in the morning!). It’s the rush hour traffic you fly into regardless of where you go, especially if where you go is due East and the two or three hours you add to your trip almost certainly ensures you’ll be stopping more than going in the stop-and-go traffic you are certain to encounter. It’s eating alone and being ‘up’ and ready for an eight-thirty keynote followed by a three-hour seminar four hours later. Did I mention the eating alone? And, it’s changing planes or worse yet terminals in Chicago or Dallas.

And… and… and…

The only thing that can make any of it worthwhile: the leaving your home and your life and your business, are the people you meet and the natural beauty that you find yourself immersed in regardless of where you go so long as you allow that beauty to wash over you. That, and the intrinsic beauty of the people you meet every time you venture out into the world and the impact each of them can have on you… if you let them touch your life… And, especially if they allow you to touch theirs.

I left the shop for an association meeting and trade show in Pittsburgh this past Friday. Truth be told, I didn’t want to.

I know… I know… Then, why did you go?

Well, it wasn’t the meeting or the city or even the fact that it’s still winter there. Or, the fact they’ve had more snow than anyone should ever have to deal with. There was just too much going on here: too much going on at the shop, and I was having too much fun doing it to want to go anywhere. But, they asked and I accepted.

So, I got up at three o’clock Friday morning and was on the road by three-thirty.

I went over my notes for Saturday’s keynote in the air. I went over the slides for the seminar I was presenting later on that afternoon. I thought about the internal struggle I am currently confronting as I try to figure out how to break up my marketing budget: how much for acquisition, how much for retention and how much for loyalty and reward. And, then I started to think about how fortunate I am: how privileged.

I was asked… I was asked to share my experience, my knowledge, my life, with some of the most incredible people in the world: the folks who do what I do… automotive service professionals, like me.

They wanted to hear what I had to say. They were gracious and generous and attentive: grateful that I’d come so far to be with them. But, the real truth  is I’m the one who was really grateful. You see, I’ve yet to go anywhere and speak to any group where I didn’t come home enriched by the experience. So, if it sounds like I was whining about the opportunity to get up that early, I’m not. Not, really… I love what I do and I love the people I do it for. In fact, it’s pretty much what I’ve got written down on the little piece of paper I keep in my wallet:

To enrich the lives of those I serve, moving them toward the success that is so elusive in our industry, by sharing my personal knowledge and experience.

In the end, Pittsburgh was wonderful because the people were wonderful (The food wasn’t half-bad either! Especially, that Iron City cheese steak with the coleslaw and French fries built in washed down with some Iron City beer!). So, it’s a pretty good bet you’ll be reading about my getting up long before dawn to share what I’ve learned and where I’ve been with another group of shop owners long before I’ve had the chance to process how much I’ve learned and how much my life has been enriched by the last group of shop owners I just left.

The last few weeks have been tough…

The shop has been busy. We had my wife’s aunt staying with us. I finally managed to overcome my own personal nemesis and Achilles Tendon since childhood, Bronchitis – again. And, I haven’t been able to work out – in the pool or otherwise, since the last time I wrote about it here.

All in all, this is not the optimum scenario for me or anyone else, for that matter.

I think that’s why no one seemed to understand why I would wake up early… really, early… this past Sunday morning to drive the seventy-plus miles to Santa Barbara for a shop management seminar when that’s the same kind of thing I’ve been presenting for more than twenty-five years.

I don’t blame them! At first, I couldn’t understand it myself. Nevertheless, I was driven – figuratively speaking, of course – to do exactly that!

So, after a quick stop at Java Johnny’s – purveyor of the world’s most exquisite (and, powerful) coffee –  for a “special” and a large coffee with a double-shot… Hey! It’s a long drive and the Corvette isn’t the only thing that requires “High Octane” fuel! – Bob Seger, Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews and John Mayer found ourselves on the “Old Road” to Highway 126, and then the 101 Freeway to the Fess Parker Inn to listen to my friend, Ken Brookings, hold forth.

It would be hard to describe just how beautiful it was taking the “Old Road” to Ventura and then heading North on the 101. So, I’m not going to try…

I’ll show you instead. The picture quality isn’t what I’d hoped it might be. But, then again, trying to achieve great picture quality while rocketing along at seventy-four or seventy-six mile per hour may not be a realistic goal. Especially, when you’re the only one in the vehicle! And, I wasn’t able to catch the waves crashing over the rocks on to the southbound lanes like I wanted to… So, you’ll just have to take my word for it. But, it was magnificent, nevertheless!

Regardless, I made it to the seminar venue with just enough time to watch the para-gliders do their thing (Sorry, too busy watching and enjoying to think about more pictures…) and park myself for more than four hours of great information, stimulating conversation and a spectacular lunch.

It’s interesting to see how others react to a morning spent like this: Why did you go? Didn’t you have anything else to do? What in the world could possibly be worth that kind of a drive? Or, my personal favorite: I thought you already knew all that stuff!

The fact of the matter is: Information is power! There isn’t anything I wanted to do more than I wanted to go and sit and learn that morning! Hanging out with smart people and listening to what they have to say was well worth the drive! And, yes: I do know all that stuff already! But, as you learn and grow, everything you read or hear or experience impacts you in new and different ways and on formerly unexplored levels based on all the new information you processed. Consequently, the morning was glorious!

Almost as glorious as the ride home listening to the car’s tunes and thinking about all the great stuff I just learned for the first time all over again!

I started my career as a writer as a speaker…

In other words, the first thing I wrote back in the Fall of 1984 was a kind of “State of the Service Industry” presentation for the Equipment & Tool Institute. Having a “hands-on” person come to speak to them about the industry and the important role the right equipment can play had become a tradition. As it turned out, the person originally chosen decided not to take advantage of the opportunity and I was the second choice, or maybe the third: whatever the number, I was the backup technician who said, Yes.

There are a couple of things worthy of mention here. First, I was a very angry, frustrated and disillusioned 38-year-old technician with two small children, a house, a dog, a fairly new family owned and operated automotive repair business and a bone to pick with the ‘greater’ automotive service industry for all the inequities and injustice I felt I was being forced to endure.

Second, I had absolutely no idea what was expected of me. No one established any ground rules: things I could or should write about, and the things I shouldn’t. No one indicated there were any industry taboos – things that were just not discussed in polite society or public gatherings. No one even told me how long the speech should run other than to say I was scheduled for the hour before lunch.

Now, Me: unsupervised and uncensored, can be a very dangerous thing!

Left to my own devices, with little or no understanding of what was expected of me and less supervision, resulted in a presentation that filled the fifty-five minutes allotted with an itemized laundry list of just about anything and everything that was wrong with my industry: everything you just weren’t supposed to talk about and it caught everyone in the room off guard!

Their reaction was terrifying! There wasn’t sound to be heard in a room filled with hundreds of automotive industry executives. There wasn’t a cough. There wasn’t a sneeze. It was a silence lasted what felt like an eternity… And, I just stood there not knowing what to do until someone finally just stood up and started clapping.

Within a few seconds the entire room was standing and clapping, and I still didn’t know what to do.

When I returned to the shop following the presentation one of the first customers to ask how everything went was a clinical psychologist. When I told her about the standing ovation she just smiled and said, “Ah, hahhh! A Maslow moment… Your life will never be the same!”

I had no idea what she was talking about. I asked what she meant by all that, and she proceeded to explain a little about Abraham Maslow, the concept of self-actualization and the “Hierarchy of Human Needs.” Frankly, I still didn’t know what she was talking about until she said that the standing ovation was a “Maslow Moment,” and that I would be chasing it: trying to recreate it, for the rest of my life.

I told her that just wasn’t me, and that while I really enjoyed the moment for what it was: I really couldn’t see myself “chasing” it.

Cut to 2010, about two hours ago, and a presentation I just finished delivering in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, to a couple of hundred shop owners for a large warehouse distributor. Those shop owners were with me. You could feel it in the room! They understood what I was trying to tell them and they ‘got it!’ You could tell from their answers… You could tell from their questions… You could tell they understood by their body language… After more than twenty-five years, you can just tell!

No one stood: no one had to! That wasn’t why I got on an airplane and flew cross country. I’m not even sure whether or not there was any applause: but, there didn’t have to be! I wasn’t there for the applause. I was there to help other people who do what I do benefit from the mistakes I’ve made and the lessons I’ve learned… And, everything suggested that they heard every word of what I had to say.

It was powerful! It was incredible! It was moving!

Perhaps, it was a kind of “mini-Maslow!” But, if it was, it was one of the best possible kinds of Maslow experiences anyone could possibly have because I wasn’t chasing it, and it didn’t just change my life… It changed a bunch of other lives as well, and it just doesn’t get any better than that!