“Racing In Circles?” - Working Hard, Getting Nowhere - Kevin Bulmer

I don’t think I realized what was happening at the time, but a lot of what I’ve learned about what works and what doesn’t work, in business and in life, I learned when I was here (overlooking the race track).

I used to manage this place (Delaware Speedway), you know. As strange as that seems to say now looking back, but it’s part of who I am and as I embrace that, it helps me to really understand things like awareness and authenticity.

Who’d have thought that you’d start to learn about things like that at a race track?

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How did I ever end up working at – and managing for a time – a race track? It’s actually pretty simple when I think back on it. I just kept saying yes to opportunities. I listened to the people that I was serving and I gave them what they said they wanted as much as I possibly could, and I didn’t let what I didn’t know get in my way.

As I look back, I can see that I’m now actively trying to get back to being like that guy that ended up in the motor sports industry. And looking back on the process has really helped me understand things like awareness, authenticity and perspective. And yet when I say those kinds of phrases to a lot of other friends, they say, “Kevin, you’ve got to dumb that down. Those phrases are too out there, they’re too, I don’t know, cosmic. I can’t really relate to it.”

I think that’s interesting because if I had understood awareness better, I might still be here (at the race track). You never know.

Racing in circles

See, without an awareness of ourselves or what we’re doing or why, or what we’re thinking or why, then we’re no different than when the cars are out on the track, where they’re just going around and around in circles, over and over and over, doing the same thing, but never getting anywhere new, expecting a different result. That’s fine if you’re in a race, but it’s not what we want in life.

I don’t know that I really want to view life as a race. We’re going to get to the end, the checkered flag, soon enough. I think I’d rather view it more as an adventure and a journey, and the more I understand awareness and authenticity and perspective, the more I’m able to observe how many people are like the cars that would be on that track, doing the same thing over and over again, completely unaware, and expecting a different result.

The more I see them making all left turns, the more I want to turn right.