I was fortunate enough to attend Bryan Adams’ “Rolling with the Punches” concert over the weekend in Johannesburg, South Africa.. My word, what a performance and performer..!!
Somewhere between the guitar riffs and a crowd that knew every single word, I had a thought that had nothing to do with music..
It had everything to do with shipping..
Because the name of the tour “Rolling with the Punches” reminded me that it is literally what our industry asks of us every single day..
Tariff swings.. Port congestion.. Rate volatility.. Geopolitical disruptions.. Pandemic.. Red Sea.. The list does not stop.. Shipping professionals do not get to pause the world and wait for calm.. They adapt, absorb, and keep moving.. That IS the job..
Bryan Adams himself is the perfect example of exactly how to roll with the punches..
The man has been making music since the late 1970s.. He has weathered trends, criticism, changing tastes, digital disruption, streaming, and every other wave that has crashed through the music world.. And there he was 50+ years later, on that stage, delivering a performance that felt completely alive..
Not nostalgic, ALIVE..
That kind of endurance does not come from luck.. It comes from doing the work, accumulating the hours, reading the room thousands of times until reading the room becomes instinct.. It comes from EXPERIENCE..
And that is exactly what shipping demands too..
The field is the best classroom you will ever find
Think about the people in your shipping career who shaped how you think..
Probably not a textbook.. Probably not a course.. Probably someone who had seen a situation go wrong three times and knew exactly how to handle it the fourth time.. Someone who could look at a set of documents and spot a problem before it became a claim.. Someone who understood the unwritten rules, the port quirks, the carrier tendencies, the customer behaviours that no manual ever captures..
That knowledge did not come from a seminar.. It came from YEARS of being in it..
In shipping, just like in music, there is a kind of knowing that only comes through doing.. You learn what a customs hold really means at 16:00 on a Friday.. You learn how a vessel delay cascades through a customer’s production schedule.. You learn that the rate on the quotation is rarely the full story..
And once you learn them that way, you do NOT forget them..
The gap between knowing and understanding
There is a difference between knowing something and understanding it, and of course between education, learning, and training..
You may KNOW that a switch bill of lading requires the full first set to be surrendered before a second set is issued.. But you UNDERSTAND it when you have had to chase a set of originals across three countries because someone issued a switch without surrendering the first set, and a cargo claim followed..
You may KNOW that Incoterms define cost and risk obligations.. But you UNDERSTAND them when you have had to explain to a buyer why they owe destination charges even though the seller quoted them CIF, because nobody read the contract properly..
This is what the field gives you.. The gap between knowing and understanding closes, slowly, through experience.. And that experience is what eventually lets you roll with the punches instead of getting knocked down by them..
Learning from people who have been there
One of the most valuable things you can do in this industry is spend time with people who have been in it longer than you..
Not to hear war stories, although those are useful too.. But to understand how they THINK.. How they approach a problem.. What questions do they ask first.. What they have learned to be careful about..
Bryan Adams did not become the performer he is by reading about performing.. He became one of the top performers by doing it, failing, refining, and doing it again across decades..
The shipping professionals who have truly mastered their craft have done the same thing.. They have sat in port meetings, discussed and argued with stakeholders, navigated disasters, built relationships, lost some, rebuilt others, and through all of it developed a kind of knowledge that is SUSTAINABLE..
It does not expire.. It does not go out of date with the next software update.. It lives in the person..
This is what the industry needs to protect
There is a lot of conversation right now about automation, AI, and how technology is changing shipping.. And it is changing it, no question..
But here is what technology cannot replicate.. The judgement that comes from experience.. The instinct that tells a good operator something is off before the data confirms it.. The relationships built over the years that make a difficult situation manageable.. The wisdom to know which rule applies and when the rule needs to bend..
These things live in people.. In the Bryan Adams caliber of people of the shipping industry.. The ones who are still on stage, still delivering, still relevant, not despite their experience but BECAUSE of it..
What are you doing with your field time..??
If you are early in your shipping career, pay attention.. Not just to the tasks, but to the people around you who have been doing this for a long time.. Ask them why, not just what..
And if you have been in this industry for a while, what are you doing with what you know..??
Because that knowledge does not belong only to you.. It belongs to the next generation of people who will carry this industry forward, and who will need every bit of it to roll with whatever punches come next..
Experience is NEVER wasted.. It only accumulates..
What is the most valuable thing you have learned from someone with more field experience than you..?? Share it below, because that knowledge is exactly what this industry runs on..
