Stuck on a Ride

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I was recently asked to speak at a conference hosted at the famous Hershey Lodge in Hershey PA.? Around 200 financial professionals were in the room, all eager to learn. I enjoyed sharing some advanced sales and marketing ideas.? I also snuck in some simple conversation starters to help them better engage with and understand their clients.

The conference wrapped up around 4 PM and a scheduled dinner was canceled. So I had a choice.? I could go back to my hotel room or I could take some time to explore “Chocolate Town USA.”?

I chose the latter.

As I was flying into Harrisburg International Airport, I flew over Hershey Amusement Park.? If you’re a roller coaster junkie, like me, the Park was the perfect place to spend a few hours and get your “coaster fix.”? So, I traveled the three miles from Hershey Lodge to the parking lot of Hershey Park.? I hopped on the Tram, purchasing my tickets online as I made my way to the gate.? Once inside, there were roller coasters everywhere you looked.

It wasn’t heaven, but it was a close second.?

The first roller coaster I rode was Candymonium.? After ascending 210 feet, the coaster smoothly plunges, accelerating to 76 mph, before taking you through camelback hills that give you a prolonged feeling of weightlessness.? I could see why this was one of the Hershey Park fan favorites. ?I absolutely loved this ride.

From there, I made my way to Skyrush.? This was touted online as one of the more thrilling roller coasters in the Park. I could see why as I approached and observed riders zipping through four high-speed turns at breakneck speeds, along with five Zero-G drops.? I took my place in line and a few minutes later, I was locked and loaded, and ready to ride.

While waiting in line, I met a Dad and his Son who were enjoying one last summer outing before school started back.? They, like me, were roller coaster fanatics and we all couldn’t wait to experience the thrill of this ride.?

With a thumbs up from the crew, the coaster inched forward and started to climb the 200-foot start to the top of the track.? Just a little more than halfway up the steep incline, the coaster lurched to a stop.? We all sat waiting for the ride to catapult us up and over the pinnacle.? We waited, and we waited. Then, we heard “the voice.”

“Ladies and gentlemen. We have experienced a technical issue.? Maintenance has been notified and is in transit.? Please remain calm and in your seat.? The ride will resume shortly.”

I was stuck, on a ride, over 100 feet in the air. The steep incline made it difficult, if not impossible, to lean forward.? All you could do was rest your head against the headrest behind you, listening to “the voice” continually tell us maintenance had been notified and the ride would resume shortly.?

There was absolutely nothing any of us trapped on the coaster could do to free ourselves.? We were locked into our seats, restraints tightly holding us in place.? After about 15 minutes, the father-son duo beside me began to wonder if maintenance had truly been notified, and just how long we were going to be stuck in the air with no way down.

Another five minutes passed and “the voice” suddenly stopped repeating itself. We experienced a slight lurch and ever so slowly started to inch toward the top of the 200-foot incline. I immediately thought of “The Little Engine That Could” and started saying “I think I can, I think I can”? to the laughter of everyone around me.

The coaster picked up speed as the ride ramped up to full speed and we made our way to the top of the incline before dropping into what was another incredible ride.? Like most coasters, the ride is over all too soon, and we find ourselves back where we started.

We laughed, celebrating the fact we “made it” and went on to the next coaster.

As I made my way around Hershey Park, that moment stuck with me.? It still does.

And that leads me to this week’s Black Belt Leadership insight.

In life, we experience problems.? These are things we can fix.? They are temporary inconveniences but we can work through them. Some examples include a cold, a flat tire, or a disagreement with a family member or friend.?

But there’s a difference between a problem and a fact of life. A fact of life is something we can’t do anything about.? Facts of life are things that are beyond our control.? No matter what we do, we can’t change them.

What’s the difference?? Gravity is a fact.? Falling is a problem.? You can minimize or avoid falling altogether by going up and down stairs slowly, holding onto a handrail, or wearing sensible shoes.? But gravity we simply have to accept.?

When I found myself stuck over 100 feet in the air, I quickly ran through a mental checklist of all the things I could potentially do to get off this ride and back onto the ground. That took all of five seconds.? I had no means of releasing the restraints that held me in place, and even if I could, did I really want to try and climb down a 100-foot steep incline to get back down??

I was facing a fact of life, something beyond my control, and I simply had to accept it.

Yet how often do we fret, worry, fuss, and complain over things we can’t control, situations that we can’t remedy on our own, or natural laws that no matter how hard we try we can’t overcome or override??

A few weeks back, I flew into Little Rock from a conference I keynoted. It was late, and I was ready to get home after a long week.? The highway crews were working on the Interstate near the airport and without warning my car came up on a massive hole in the highway.? The impact of my tire hitting this hole at 55 mph bent the rim of my wheel, unseating my tire in the process.?

I drive a Camaro.? In place of a spare tire, my car is equipped with an inflation system that not only airs up a flat tire but can also seal most leaks.? A flat tire is a problem. A bent rim is a fact of life.? When the rim is bent, the tire won’t reseat and it can’t be aired up.

So, I limped into a Shell Gas Station at 12:30 AM, called AAA, and waited for a tow truck to come get me.? It took the tow truck about an hour to get to where I was and another 30 minutes to load my car.? From there, it was a 54-mile ride back to Hot Springs to drop off my Camaro at the Tire Store and wait for my wife to come pick me up.

I could have gotten angry, but how would that help me resolve a fact of life I couldn’t fix on my own?? This was my chance to live out a personal growth teaching I share often, “Problems can be solved.? Solve them.? Facts of Life can’t be changed, so accept them and move on.”

My rim couldn’t be repaired, and there wasn’t a replacement to be found anywhere in the United States.? The outcome?? I purchased four new rims and four new tires.

Two weeks later, as I was driving home from the airport, I struck a piece of metal on the Interstate, shattering one of the new rims, bending a second rim, and busting two of the new tires I had just purchased.? A state trooper stopped to check on me, and once again I contacted AAA to send a wrecker.? Two hours later, the process started once again.

The outcome??

One rim could be repaired. One had to be replaced, as did two of the tires I had just purchased.? Once again, I had to choose between fussing, complaining, or getting angry, or I could choose to accept what I couldn’t change and move on.

Before the Trooper could find that piece of debris on the highway, two more vehicles joined me on the side of the road, experiencing a similar outcome to my own.? One of the drivers took the low road.? His behavior (and language) were embarrassing…and none of this resolved the fact of life we were all experiencing.? The other driver said nothing, popped his trunk, and in a few minutes had mounted his spare and was back on the highway.

How you respond to life says a lot about who you are on the inside.

Black Belt Leaders understand that problems can be solved but facts of life cannot be changed and have to be accepted.? Because others are always watching, how we respond to a problem (or a fact of life) speaks volumes about our character.

Our character is how we think, feel, and behave.? It says a lot about what we value and what’s truly important to us.? Black Belt Leaders understand that people do what people see.? Our character is always on display – especially when we’re experiencing a fact of life we can’t fix or resolve on our own. It shows up in our daily routine, whether we realize it or not.

I love the way Napoleon Hill put it in “The Laws of Success” when he reminded his readers,

“Human character does evermore publish itself. It cannot be concealed. It hates darkness – it rushes into light.”?

There is no value in losing our temper or allowing our emotions to run wild,? It only serves to diminish how we are perceived as a leader by those who are watching.? Black Belt Leaders understand their leadership, and their character, is always on display. As such, they choose to proactively solve the problems they face and accept the facts of life they can’t change.

What we are really talking about is self-control, which is defined as the ability to manage or control our impulses, emotions, and behaviors to achieve long-term goals.? In life, we will all experience problems (which we can solve) and facts of life that we can’t change and have to accept.

Our outlook determines our outcome. Self-control helps us maintain the right outlook so we can regulate our response to problems and facts of life.

I think about these things when I’m stuck on a roller coaster, 100 feet in the air, at an amusement park in Hershey PA.?

You should too, but you don’t have to wait until you’re stuck on a ride to do so.

But if you do find yourself in Hershey PA, you can’t go wrong spending some time at Hershey Park if you’re looking to get your roller coaster fix.? But make Wildcat’s Revenge your last roller coaster of the day, because all the other coasters pale in comparison to this wooden behemoth.

And you can practice your self-control while enjoying a thrilling ride. ?Thanks, Hershey, for an enjoyable evening riding 10 incredible coasters, even if I did get stuck on a ride.

In the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, “I’ll be back.”?