Hidden In Plain Sight

Yo! What up guys! It's been nearly three months since I've posted anything! I missed you guys and your feedback! I've had my head in the sand building some really awesome things that I can't wait to share with you over the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this week's driver shortage perspective coming in with the title "Hidden in Plain Sight"

In 2016, a NY-based start-up did a survey on how purpose and a clear vision can impact a company.? The results of that study reflect that 58% of companies with a clearly articulated purpose achieved growth of 10%+ over the past three years. 85% of companies with clearly articulated purpose showed some growth overall, while 42% of companies without it showed negative growth.

But what does any of this have to do with my niche? I’m the bus guy. My purpose is to drive and not have accidents, right? There isn't a massive uptick in bus collisions last I checked, so is it fair to assume that one's purpose as a bus operator is indeed functioning?

So if this is the reality, why is my industry experiencing a massive decline? Safety is up,? bus technology, bus quality is up, and bus wages are up. The overall experience of transit is up! It is in a much better place than when I entered the industry, right? So what happened? What in this present day has the state of affairs so bad that you literally cannot pay someone to drive a bus.

As I began to reexamine my career as a bus operator and using it as a catalyst for the rest of my sentiments. I saw a 10-year journey full of promise, potential, and great driving, but a career also full of poor morale, purpose, and attendance.

Fast forward to the present, with a potential shortage of a million bus operators looming by 2030, we currently see an industry that at one point was also full of promise, potential, and great opportunity. Now struggling to get drivers, because of poor morale, purpose, and attendance.

See what I did there?

As you continue to read, please do not take me and my words as arrogant or prideful, but as words written with discernment and a passionate and deeper understanding of what is going on presently.

A lot of operators like myself were lured into the transportation industry with the proposition of financial prosperity, flexibility, and the promise of being a part of a winning culture. Only to discover an industry full of heavy workloads, inadequate management styles, unattainable growth opportunities, and no work-life balance.

?Being removed from operations for nearly 2 years, I have come to realize the true foundation sustaining the current state of affairs within bus operations are in fact not a result of external factors, but internal ingredients.

Cliff Notes version: this is a matter of the heart.

After spending more than a decade driving buses, for multiple people and multiple companies, I have come to discover that money and wealth, benefits and incentives, security and stability (external outcomes) do not automatically equal a fulfilling and purposeful(internal feelings) career.

Modern-day example: There are millions of unhappy millionaires.

Industry Example:? Consider how every contract negotiation is the same. A constant argument of salary, security, wealth, benefits, and incentives. If these things were a solid ground to create a purposeful career, we would not need to have the same conversations every 4 years. The transparent truth is these things fade.

Cliff Notes version #2: Purpose is the problem.

As a result of these pillars, as operators, we found our parking lots were filled with exotic cars, and bank accounts were full of money but our assembly rooms were filled with discontentment, frustration, and unhappiness. This is because money does not and will not solve those problems.? Consequently, tossing money at recruitment, signing bonuses and other external factors will not solve the driver shortage, and this is coming from someone who used to recruit bus drivers. I had the marketing, ads, relationships, and algorithms down to a science. My skills were sharp and my techniques were sharper. To date–my pipeline still has nearly 7,000 potential candidates in Maryland alone. However, this failed because good marketing and knowing how to “hack hashtags” is still not a substitute for purpose.

Furthermore, if the purpose is the problem and that is the rule, how did I find fulfillment and purpose in driving a bus for so long, at such a high level.?

Here is a pretty handy formula for doing so. It's a three-step process that uses the best letter in the alphabet.

Passion+Purpose÷Platform=Prominence.

Before we begin, let's understand what these words are, and the context of their definitions.

Passion: is the fuel that drives action. (See what I did there bus drivers?) It’s the unexplainable feeling you have towards a certain thing, so much so that you would sacrifice or suffer for it.

Purpose: is the reason for the creation or existence of a thing.

Platform: is a group of instances or circumstances that are used as a base in which other instances or circumstances are created.

?Using myself as an example, here is exactly how I used this formula to find happiness in my job as an operator, so much so that I still work in the industry today, just in a different capacity.? I was able to find fulfillment in my time as a transit operator because I had a passion to serve others. The bus was just the vessel. I took the utmost satisfaction in doing my job in God’s plan by being a resource to entire communities by providing them a safe consistent trip every day.?

(God’s plan, Matthew 6:11. “Give us today our daily bread” I hope you guys didn't think daily bread meant an actual loaf of bread lol. It means giving us the resources we need, daily to maintain life, and for the people I served, transportation was a part of their daily bread and I was happy to be the servant that brought it.)

However, this formula is incomplete as a job without a passion to power purpose is simply a labor loan to a 3rd party. Some like to call this employee turnover.

So how does one find purpose to work alongside passion in simply driving the bus? To discover that we have to understand what a bus's primary purpose is. At its root in the simplest terms, a bus is designed to get as many people as possible from point to point in the most economical way possible.

For me, my purpose was to create for others. For as long as I could remember I wanted to be an entrepreneur and bring ideas to life. I’ve created multiple businesses in my lifetime, and even though some worked and others didn't, I feel at home creating them. I’ve been blessed to create a multitude of different businesses, everything ranging from a gosupir.com, website development, and even pro wrestling. In understanding me, I understand my purpose, it was no accident that those businesses were built to showcase the brilliance of others. My purpose is to create canvases. Simply put.

Now that we understand my passion and purpose, let's tie them together with a platform and see how they all work together.

My passion for serving fueled me to come to work and do the best I can because it was never about the job. It was about my passion to serve and create for others. Every trip for me was a chance to create and experience and serve people.

But again, it's not about the vessel, I could have worked at a hotel and had the same energy. The bus was the horse pulling my passion and purpose forward, not the other way around. My purpose was to create things. I’m a creative being. I am happiest when I get a chance to create anything to solve a problem. It doesn't matter where I am, or where anyone is for that matter, their passion and purpose will always rise, shine or poke through.

My platform just happened to be in transit. Transit allowed me access to various programs, gave me political relationships with people in high places, sent me to college, and provided me with a salary to fund my ventures. Transit was an investor. Monetarily, educationally and relationship-wise.?

The Patrick Parents company, Gosupir.com, The CC Academy, and Matthew 626 are all the result of utilizing the instances the transit platform gave me, to create instances of my own.

As a result of utilizing passion+purpose÷platform, I was able to maximize this platform which in return helped manifest my purpose and now my purpose fuels my passion which has been and always will be to serve others. Because I utilized the transit platform as such–I have now been afforded the opportunity to utilize my purpose as my passion by creating platforms that serve others.

As I close, whether you are a manager, supervisor, or a driver If you remember nothing else I’ve said please remember this—

Driving a bus is what you do.? It's a skill, talent, gift, and most importantly a tool, a swiss army knife to help you craft the reality you want, not the one you choose to accept.

But driving a bus is not who you are.

One more time for the people in the back! Driving a bus is what you do, not who you are!

It’s not enough to just drive. You have to drive for something. Money will fade, health will fade, and your career will fade.? We place so much emphasis on telling who to drive the bus with these archaic hiring practices that scare away more candidates than they capture. What bus to drive in our quest to maintain the asset longer, not realizing the driver is the actual asset. When and where to drive the bus because we all know how run picks work.? We’ve worked to control all of these W’s, missing the significance of the most important one.

Why?

For those of us who will retire here, we will spend nearly 70% of our adult life here, 100% of our physical peak and prime. When you ask yourself your why, evaluate if you are really ok with saying I spent 70% of my adult life to “get the bills paid.

I do not believe your purpose and passions are to just pay bills, however, I leave the floor open to be proved wrong.

The future of transit is not in who is driving the bus but in helping them find out why they drive it. If you’ve enjoyed this article and want to learn more about the seminars, coaching, and speaking engagements I offer based on this, let's have virtual coffee and talk about it.

Schedule a meeting with me at www.patrickparents.com