Liberty’s Lane: By Liberty V Justice That made me think differently about communication,too. Inearliercolumns, I wrote about how expensive silence can be. Butcommunicationisn’tonlyhow other people come to know you, it’s how youcometoknowthings,too. Youask, you research, you say, “I don’t know,” and you ask for clarification or another perspective. Fearshrinksyourworld, butcuriosityexpandsit. Ignorance doesn’t protect us – it deprives us of choices. ThenIlearnedabouttorque. I’d heard the word “torque” plenty of times, but I didn’t understand it. Now I can reduce it to one word – twist. Combustion forces the piston down, that movement turns the crankshaft, and torque describes the twisting force being producedthere. Suddenly,somethingI had written about before made sense. The 1970 Boss 302 Mustang – the car I’ve talked about in this column and love – was factory-rated at 290-hp and 290lb-ftoftorque. AmodernPACCAR MX-13 heavy-duty diesel engine can produce more than 400 horsepower and wellover1,500lb-ftoftorque. That stopped me, as I realized the horsepower numbers are different, but they aren’t in completely different universes – but the torque numbers are. A Mustang was built to move a relativelylightcarquickly. Aloaded tractor-trailer has an entirely different job. Ithastomovetremendousamounts of weight, working against resistance, includingclimbinghills. Heavy-duty diesels can produce enormous twisting forceatrelativelylowspeeds. Then,one questionledtoanother. Istartedreading about clutches and came across a thing calledclutchengagementtorque. That’s what I’m beginning to love about learning this stuff – every answer creates another question. Asking a question isn’t evidence that you’re stupid, it’s how you stop being ignorant. Butbeingwillingtoaskisn’t enough. Youalsohavetoknowwhom toask. Havinganopiniondoesn’tmake someone knowledgeable, and having experience in one area doesn’t make someoneanexpertinanother. IfIwant to understand what pulling a heavy load People say, “What you don’t know can’thurtyou.” Ithinktheoppositeis true. Whatyoudon’tknowcanhurtyour business, your health, your relationships, your equipment – and sometimes even yourlife. Formuchofmine,Iwasafraid to admit when I didn’t know something. I grew up feeling stupid, so asking questions felt more like exposing a weaknessthangainingknowledge. Now, Iseeitdifferently. Askingquestionshas becomeoneofmysuperpowers. I’ve learned there are incredibly kind and knowledgeable people who want to share what they know – you just have to find the right people and be willing to ask. Now that I’m writing for a trucking magazine, I want to understand more of it, including the machines themselves. As mentioned last month, a truck once crashed into me hard enough to fracture my skull, so fear isn’t theoretical for me. ButIdon’twanttospendmylife avoiding what scares me – I want to understandit. Istartedembarrassingly basic, asking, “How does a diesel engine work?” Ilearnedthatadieselengine doesn’t use spark plugs to ignite the fuel. Airentersthecylinder,thepiston compresses that air until it becomes extremely hot, diesel fuel is injected, combustion forces the piston downward, and that movement turns the crankshaft. Asking the question didn’t prove I was stupid – it made me smarter. 10-4 Magazine / October 2026 49 up a steep grade is like, an experienced driver may know something no spec sheetcanteachme. AndifIwantto understand exactly what is happening inside a diesel engine, I need technical information from a reliable source. If you are always the smartest and most knowledgeable person in every room you enter, you need to find another room! Youcan’tbuildabiggerlife from people and information that never stretchwhatyoualreadyknow. Ispent much of my childhood believing that not knowing something meant I was stupid. Foryears,thatfearhelpedkeep myworldsmall. Evennow,meeting someone new, reaching out to a potential client, or stepping onto a stage can scare me. Andafteratruckfracturedmy skull, trucks became connected to a very real kind of fear for me, too. I can’t change what happened, but I can refuse to organize my life around fear. Learningaboutthisindustryand how the machines themselves work is another way of walking toward a thing insteadofawayfromit. Thiscolumn (and my business) exists because I reachedout. Relationshipsbeginwhen somebodysayshello. Problemsget solved because somebody finally says what needs to be said, and opportunities happen because somebody asks. Knowledge works the same way. Find the right source, ask a question, and thenlistenandlearn. Then,askanother question. Whatyoudon’tknowcanhurt you, what you refuse to learn can keep hurting you, and who you choose to learn from can determine how far you grow. So, make the call, send the email, walk into the room that scares you or, in my case,learnhowanengineworks. You don’t have to know everything before you begin, you just have to refuse to staywhereyoustoppedlearning. Learn more about me and my life’s mission at www.imworthitentertainment.com. n OVERRIDE FEAR
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