I’ve just come back from a week in Ireland. We rented a car, a Suzuki SUV, manual shift six speed on the floor. A sweet little car. Because I’ve driven multiple times in England and Ireland, I didn’t have any problem driving on the left side of the road this time –  I’ve learned to go left in roundabouts and not to drive into bushes on a single lane country track when facing off with a lorry or a tractor. Yep, I did pretty well…except for the dozen times I stalled the car starting out from the dead stop because I didn’t give it enough gas when I let out the clutch… or the occasional problem finding third gear when downshifting. Those were entertaining. Never mind, no damage done.

I quite liked the manual shift… Shifting gears gave me a more visceral connection to the vehicle compared to an automatic. I could shift at any engine speed from any transmission gear, allowing me more control over my Suzuki’s engine’s torque and power. And, while I have no designs on following Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton into Formula 1 racing, the six speed was great fun when driving on a clear road with lots of bends.

Back in Cambridge on Saturday morning, I climbed into my daily driver, a sedan with an automatic transmission. It felt good, like sliding into my own bed after a week in hotels. Although the outside temperature was lurking in the single digits, the engine started fine. After warming for a few moments, I shifted the automatic transmission to “Drive” and went off smoothly… until a jogger crossed in front of me.

My left foot stabbed for the clutch. My right foot reached for the brake. My right hand reached to the gearshift to shift down… except you don’t do that in an automatic transmission car and I ended up shifting the car into reverse. Happily, at a very slow speed. I smooshed the brake pedal down hard as I shifted the gears back into neutral and took a breath.

This produced serious confusion for the driver in the car behind me and a very sharp jolt of adrenaline for me. I may have said something.

Since I was silently full-stopped in the middle of the street, the guy behind me honked.

“Yeah, I know, I screwed up.“

I slowly pulled off to the side of the street so he could pass me. He rewarded me with a universal salute.

“OK, fine, I earned it.”

Lesson re-experienced: When shifting from one environment to another, be thoughtful about changing gears so as not to apply the wrong foot.

Nick Miller and Clarity train banks and bankers to attract and develop deeper relationships with small businesses. Many more Sales Thoughts like this and a host of other articles and resources at https://clarityadvantage.com/knowledge-center/ .