“Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future.”
―Denis Waitley
When Chris* pulled up at the parking lot, he appeared calm and collected. My first question as I got into the car may have surprised him. “Chris, with a customer rating of 4.58, you are rated a bit lower than other Uber drivers I have encountered. You come across as a great guy and your car looks better than other Uber rides I have taken. Why such a low rating?” I asked. He quickly responded that he has little control over people’s emotions and sometimes, some of the clients are just in a foul mood.
Chris is one of the longest serving Uber drivers I have ridden with. Having been with Uber for 16 months, he has had three previous experiences as a cab driver. He operated as an independent taxi driver at the start then worked for two other taxi companies before joining Uber. He appreciates Uber’s automated trip costing model. This saves him the agony of negotiating trip cost with the client, an imminent deal breaker in his previous experiences.
Our conversation took a different twist when I inquired if some of his clients had expressed any thoughts on the forthcoming elections in Kenya. He pointed out that I was the second person to ask him that question. His response was a painful reflection of his experience in the 2007-2008 post election violence. As a teenagerliving in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, and under the influence of friends, he witnessed three of his friends die in the violence. He almost lost his right hand forefinger as they tried to uproot the rail track. He had a vehicle body spraying job at the time and for quite some time thereafter he could not get any paint job done. In his own words, anyone who witnessed the violence then would not even wish to hear of a repeat of it.
We both ended on a note that we need to be ambassadors of peace.We reckoned that peace would ensure we continue with our businesses before, during and after the elections. Chris was emphatic that he learnt very painfully from his past and for now, he wants to play his role of voting for his candidate of choice, maintaining peace and keep busy moving people from one point to another to earn his living.
Jack Canfield said, “Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.” As a leader, are you learning from your past experiences whether positive or negative? What are you doing differently based on the lessons you have learnt?
