10 Life Tips From Taxi Drivers

Every so often, I hail a cab, get in it, tell the driver the destination, and hope I get there in time. Smoothly.

And where I stay now, that’s a really good day. Circumstances and situations have turned taxicabs here into occasional headaches and money-sucking vampires.

Screw the meter! I know you need me, so pay up! Free market economy at work. Especially in the pouring rain.

Or how about being repeatedly turned down because you don’t have a desirable destination? That also hurts.

There were many times, rain or shine, where I was stuck in traffic in a taxi. Everything still, except for the meter.

It’s so easy to feel depressed, annoyed, angry even, at the situation and how people can seemingly be out to get you and make your life miserable.

That’s a sad way of looking at things. Want a better way?

We’re all people, we all bleed the same. Let’s make life on this earth more enjoyable and meaningful for everyone.

Everyone’s fighting their own battles, be kind

These cabbies are also people, working to earn money, with families to feed, and children to take care of. They could have been laid off, and turned to driving a taxi to somehow make ends meet.

I’m not giving them an excuse to treat us badly, and I don’t like that happening at all. But don’t we have the same problems as well? Haven’t we gone through troubles and problems of our own?

Only love can overcome hate. Instead of passing around negativity, let’s pass around love.

Always have your feet on the ground, take care of the people around you

I once had a taxi driver who was previously a security agent for high ranking VIPs in the country. He painted a really stark picture of people in power, who had all the money and material things they could ever wanted.

He also shared how those guys fell. Sometimes done in by people who wanted what they got, but more often by someone whose toes they stepped on.

“The ones who were most successful, and were able to sustain their success,” he shares, “always kept their feet on the ground. They were down-to-earth, able to relate to anyone, and they took care of people well.”

Always be helping others. Even when it seems that they can’t help you.

Answer the question: “What’s in it for me” for other people

Let’s face it. People, me included, always think about what we’re going to get from specific things, experiences, moments, and connections. If it’s not worth it to us, then why bother?

That taught me to ask taxi drivers who would say no at first.

“Where are you going?”

“What do you want?”

“Is there a problem where I’m going?”

If you know their concerns and problems, or what they want, it then becomes easier for you to offer them something of value.

It also increases the likelihood of you coming up with a mutually beneficial solution, and ultimately, me getting to my destination.

Control of your own time is such a great feeling to have

There’s another guy who left his job to drive a taxi.

He earned more from his previous job, but he prefers the flexibility he has driving around a taxi.

What does this flexibility give him? More time with his family, which he says, is the most important thing in his life.

And it’s such a great feeling to have to devote your schedule, your time, to what is truly important to you.

That, and the power to take a 5 day weekend if you wanted to.

It’s not only the money and what you can do with it, but how it makes you feel

Most of the ones I’ve asked have told me that it’s hard to earn a lot of money driving around a taxi. But then I asked them:

“What does money mean for you?”

So I got a lot of different answers to that question. All of them boiled down to : options.

And with the options, come a feeling of freedom, of being able to choose what you want to do, not because you have to or you should.

So at some point, the amount of money isn’t the most important thing. Not what you can buy with it, but how having the money, the freedom, the options, make you feel.

And I ain’t kidding, it’s a really great feeling.

What you believe in, eventually comes true

Some of them tell me: “I ain’t got nothing else but to drive this taxi. I want to get out of this job, but there’s nothing else for me.”

Keep thinking like that, and they’ll never find a way out.

What we think, what we believe, affect what we see and what we perceive the world to be. If we feel we don’t deserve what we have, eventually, we’ll lose all of it.

Beliefs are self-fulfilling prophecies. Don’t like what you believe in? You can change.

Get enough food and sleep

Take care of yourself. The really professional and seemingly laid back taxi drivers tell me they earn enough, more even, when they take time to take care of themselves. Get some sleep, eat and not miss a meal if they can. It’s part of being a safe driver as well.

If you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t be able to produce great results. Our bodies and minds operate on the principle: garbage in, garbage out. So might as well put in great fuel and not garbage.

Besides, you don’t want to go all out for a short period of time, only to irreparably damage yourself for the rest of your life.

You want to take a long-term, sustainable, constantly improving approach.

You always have options, you can always get back on track, and make something out of your life

Failure can happen to us. It’s up to us if we will be stopped by it.

I’ve come across guys who took to driving a taxi because they were recently laid off, needed to take a second job, or dropped out of school. They felt like they couldn’t handle what life threw at them. They told me that they felt they failed.

Some of them, have told me that this is a temporary setback. This is just something that they’re doing, and that sooner or later, they will be moving ahead, moving to something else.

One guy said it perfectly: “I will rise up, again, and again.”

People have dreams as well

All of us.

We all have things we want to go for in life. Things we haven’t achieved yet. Things that seem so far away.

And yet, sometimes, we treat people as if that’s all they are ever going to be.

People have dreams as well. What they’re doing now may seem so far away, but I sure hope as hell that they’re working towards it.

Encourage people to go after their dreams. It costs nothing to do it, sincerely. All upside there.

And check the side and behind the car before opening your door

Because you never know when a car, bike or motorcycle will just come speeding by and slam into it!

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