As a young man growing up in the German town of Marienfeld, Ralf Suerken, senior vice president and general manager of the manufacturing division of software company Softbrands, developed a love of dancing and racing.
“Ballroom dancing is big in
Germany. When you’re 15 and you don’t dance, your mother gets a little
concerned. I started taking lessons at 14 and later became an instructor in my
local dance school. I taught the waltz, tango, slow fox, quick-step, samba,
rumba, cha-cha-cha, and jive, which is like rock and roll. I still love dancing.
Dancing is tough. It’s one of the hardest sports I’ve ever done. You have to be extremely consistent,
which takes hours of practice every day. You practice so you don’t leave
anything to chance. Dancing taught me perseverance and discipline.
“Car racing is my passion. I built my own go-carts and raced them as a kid. When you grow up in Germany, with no speed limits on the autobahn, you race. Occasionally I take my car—a BMW M5—to the racetrack in Brainerd and let it go. They have open track time, but you have to be certified and you have to go through some instruction so you don’t kill yourself.
“The fastest I’ve gone in Brainerd is about 155 mph, but I’ve gone faster than that on the German highways. If it’s a Sunday and you have a good stretch of highway, you can go 180 mph, and that makes you sweat; 150 mph is comfortable in a car.
“World-class racers are all masters of preparation. They walk the track and know the braking points. It’s the same as going into a sales meeting; it’s all about practice. ‘What am I going to say, and how am I going to say it?’ The most important thing is to prepare.”
