A few times, Kiro drove me from Skopje airport to Bitola (and back). He is a professional truck driver, transporting trucks for a client with whom I worked for almost a year on a supply chain optimization, inventory, and planning project. During our two to two and a half hours of driving, I realized some simple and obvious truths about how we live and work incorrectly.

While I was recently working on a supply chain project in Bitola (North Macedonia), I learned several valuable lessons for travel, but also for life and business. I provide advice on how to balance business and make better decisions to the management of various companies. However, these lessons I received from driver Kiro, who occasionally drove me from the airport in Skopje to Bitola. Bitola is the second largest city in Macedonia and it is quite challenging to reach it from Zagreb. The flight takes about two hours to Skopje and then by car another two hours or a little more (depending on the driver, the season, and traffic).

A few times, Kiro drove me from Skopje airport to Bitola (and back). He is a professional truck driver, transporting trucks for a client with whom I worked for almost a year on a supply chain optimization, inventory, and planning project. It is a journey of about 157 kilometers and usually takes two to two and a half hours by car (depending on weather and traffic conditions). This time is quite enough for deep conversations.

Lesson number 1: Professionalism with a Smile

The fundamental thing about Kiro is the professionalism that radiates from him. He is a professional truck driver, doing this for over forty years (he says he will retire in a few years). The most important thing for him is to do the job properly, which means transporting the truck with goods from point A to point B without mistakes (damage to goods or vehicles) and without significant delays. The main lesson I learned from Kiro is professionalism with a smiling face.

His smile is neither artificial nor sour, but natural and real. I rarely see that combination of professionalism and a smile; I must admit that I rarely see this combination in myself either. There are two most common variants: a) either we like someone and we smile at them because we feel comfortable; b) or we are completely cold and professional. Professionalism with a natural smile is a rare combination.

Lesson number 2: The journey takes as long as it takes

In the previous lesson, I mentioned that one of the basic rules is that the truck arrives without significant delays. When I heard that Kiro was driving me, I knew that the journey would take at least two and a half to three hours, which (I must admit) slightly irritated me. Namely, I am like many other ‘professionals’ all rushed even when it is not imperative (I am not late anywhere, but I simply want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible). Kiro always drives slower and more cautiously than average drivers. Speed (or slowness) conditions a lower probability of mistakes that a driver can influence.

So, I learned that it is not important to arrive as quickly as possible, which means that one should not hurry. When a person is rushed and when the job is done at the last minute, mistakes (perhaps even fatal) usually happen. As I mentioned, I am rushed without any need, but I also witness in my work that clients make mistakes simply because they do not have time to think about long-term consequences. For example, they make decisions about expanding the assortment, increasing inventory, or the method and procedure for replenishing production with goods from the warehouse without analyzing ‘what if’, developing scenarios, and the impact on other factors. Often it is a matter of not stopping to think about all the consequences of decisions, but simply playing the first ball.

Lesson number 3: Take a break!

When I was driving with Kiro from Skopje to Bitola, I knew that we would stop each time to rest and have coffee. I became aware of this rule again, although it is something that should not be particularly emphasized. However, we often forget that, not only on a journey due to driving but also in every job and in life, one needs to take a break. Therefore, after a continuous period of work, one should take a break and rest from that work and reassess priorities. There is a well-known story about a man who was sawing a tree with a dull saw and could not finish the job. When a passerby suggested that he might need to sharpen the saw, he replied that he had no time.

So, let’s take the time to sharpen the saw. Likewise, sometimes we cannot see the forest for the trees (and vice versa). In another story, a team of lumberjacks comes into the forest and starts cutting down trees, sawing, and transporting wood. Then one of them climbs the tallest tree in the forest, looks around, and informs the rest of the team: ‘Hey, we are in the wrong forest!’ We need to take the time to climb the tallest tree to ensure we are in the right forest, because no matter how fast and efficient we are, we might simply be doing unnecessary work.

Lesson number 4: Always keep your hands on the wheel!

A practical lesson primarily for driving, but applicable to work as well. As a professional driver, Kiro recommended to me, and also demonstrated by his example, that hands must be kept on the wheel at all times. Namely, during driving, we often like to rest by holding the wheel with only one hand or holding it at the bottom. Kiro explains this recommendation by the fact that it is harder to react if an unpredictable situation arises (sudden braking of a vehicle in front, an animal or a person jumping onto the road in front of the car, etc.) if the hands are anywhere but on the wheel.

So, it is not enough to hold it with one hand and it is not enough to hold the wheel from the bottom because in the case of an unforeseen situation we unconsciously raise our hands towards the upper part of the wheel and lose precious fractions of a second. I often remember this advice because I travel a lot, but I also started thinking that in business, one should always keep their hands on the wheel. I do not mean excessive control (to become control freaks), but to control when it is necessary. This means that we must have management tools and resources (technology and people) at hand and defined processes such as various KPIs (key performance indicators), procedures, and so on.

Lesson number 5: If you make a mistake – admit it!

Another purely driving lesson. Since Kiro loves to talk about his professional life, he told me many anecdotes and examples, including those when he made a traffic violation. Of course, it is impossible that in his professional life he never made a mistake, and Kiro is no exception. However, he says, ‘when you make a traffic violation, bow to the authority (the police officer), admit it, and pay.’ There is no point in arguing and justifying oneself to the authority (the police officer, the boss, the client, etc.), but one should admit the mistake, correct it if possible, and learn the lesson. Most mistakes happen due to poor communication. In my professional work, I often use brainstorming, fishbone diagrams (Ishikawa diagrams), and similar methods to analyze specific problems such as excessive inventory, distribution issues, or poor planning. In ninety percent of cases, communication is one of the three main causes. Therefore, open communication and admitting mistakes is a healthy way of doing business and living.

Lesson number 6: If you are unjustly accused – do not argue!

The continuation of the previous lesson is actually an additional lesson. Namely, often in traffic, injustice occurs, that is, the police officer says that we committed a violation when we think we did not, or we had some reason why it happened, or we wanted to avoid a bigger accident, and so on. Kiro told me such a situation from his experience. In such cases, he advises not to argue with the authority, but to assertively present our side of the story and then pay the fine. Although it is difficult (especially for those of us who have a finely tuned sense of justice and a big ego that cannot stand that others are right when they actually are not), I think this can also be applied to business and life, because sometimes it is indeed more useful, as people say, to keep your ears covered and move on than to seek justice. Namely, every argument eventually turns into a battle of egos in which, of course, the one who has authority wins, not the one who is right (nor the one who has a bigger ego). Due to the argument, tension rises and sometimes we say something we do not mean, or we mean it, but we should not say it because it would have much worse consequences than the initial fine. For example, if the initial fine is an injured ego due to some reprimand or perhaps the rejection of my idea, the much greater consequence is losing a job or poisoning relationships with colleagues.

Lesson number 7: A year or two is not important in the bigger picture

Kiro did not only talk about professional life but also about life in general, so on one trip he mentioned the story of a fruit tree. Namely, due to damage to the tree, the fruit tree slowed its metabolism and did not bear fruit for several years because, as Kiro says: ‘The tree thinks in a hundred years!’ Namely, a tree has a lifespan of a hundred years or more, and in relation to that, a year or two does not play a role in the bigger picture.

I often think about this lesson and I believe I should apply it much more often for various decisions. Today’s view of life is short-term: next year I want a new car, and in the next five years, I want an apartment. The same goes for business because all indicators are short-term: the balance sheet is for one year, sales plans are monthly, and production plans are made weekly. A person’s lifespan is almost a hundred years, but we think in much shorter cycles and it is not even in our minds to sacrifice a year or two to gather strength, rest, redistribute priorities, sharpen the saw, or check if we are in the right forest.