Project 366 / 118 — Saudi truckers, talking and your North Star

It’s good to talk. It’s even better chatting to people on the same level as you, who are going through similar things to you. I guess it really helps make sense of the struggle and the sacrifices but more importantly reinforces the direction that you’re travelling, which is something that is easy to lose sight of.

I remember someone telling me a story about truck drivers in the Saudi desert. The distances they had to travel were so vast that they could only make the journey in pairs. The terrain was flat and hard with little points of reference so they’d have to follow the route of the overground pipelines as map reference.

Whilst travelling, the trucks would pull closely alongside each other causing a vacuum which would keep the trucks together. Then after putting both trucks on autopilot one driver would jump across to the other to play card games, watch TV or just for company. Often the drivers would fall asleep only to wake up to find that the vacuum between the trucks had been lost and the other truck had veered off course.

They’d then drive the truck to find the unmanned truck, pull alongside, jump over, correct the course, resume the vacuum and repeat until finally reaching their destination.

Business is much like that. On a day to day basis it can feel like you’re heading in the right direction and all is going well. But over time you can easily drift. It’s not necessarily noticeable as it happens but over time this drift can be quite dramatic.

A point of reference, a mentor, a visible business plan, a business partner, regular company meetings and having a couple of people to talk to who are following a similar path can really help you continue your journey to your North Star.

5 minutes of daily planning can save days of diversions.