The Trap of Being the ‘I’ll Handle It Myself’ Person

There’s a specific kind of person who ends up in logistics: the “don’t worry, I’ll handle it” type.
Every industry has them, but logistics seems to attract them in bulk. Maybe it’s the constant problem-solving, maybe it’s the adrenaline of fixing things minutes before they break, or maybe it’s just the culture we all grew up in, where being busy meant you were important. And it shows,  logistics workers actually rank #1 for burnout risk of any industry, with 20% over-utilized, 15% at risk, and the longest average workday at 9 hours and 10 minutes.

But somewhere along the way, “handling it” quietly turns into “carrying the entire company on your back.” And most people don’t realize the cost of that until they’re already paying it.

The funny thing is, doing everything yourself feels efficient. It feels responsible. It feels faster at the moment, just answer the email, just update the file, just follow up on the truck, just redo the spreadsheet because the formatting is a disaster and you’re the only one who knows how it should look.

But the truth is this: every time you jump in to do it yourself, you reinforce a system where you are the system. And that’s where the real trouble starts.

The Busy Trap 

Most people don’t burn out because the work is too hard. They burn out because they’re doing all of it, all the time, and they’ve convinced themselves they’re the only one who can.

Meanwhile, the tasks that actually move a business forward, planning, improving, reorganizing, training, getting ahead of problems instead of reacting to them, get pushed off to the side “until things quiet down.” But things never quiet down, because you’re too busy keeping them loud.

And it’s sneaky, because your calendar looks full, your inbox is bursting, your day is hectic, so it feels like progress. But being busy doesn’t equate to productivity or moving your business forward. It’s just noise that sounds like work.

The Bottleneck is You

Every time someone says “I’ll just do it,” the company gets a little slower. Not dramatically. Not enough for anyone to panic. But enough to make things drag in places they shouldn’t: approvals waiting for one person, customers waiting for one reply, team members waiting for someone to have two minutes free to give them direction.

Most bottlenecks in logistics aren’t structural. They’re usually human, Not because people are bad at their jobs, but because they’re too good, too competent, too reliable, too quick to step in and fix it. And the better you are, the more you end up owning. Until one day you look at your to-do list and realize there’s no version of this where you get to breathe, forget about strategizing.

Letting Go Isn’t Losing Control

The moment you loosen your grip, even slightly, everything shifts. Not overnight, and not perfectly, but enough to make space. Enough to let other people get stronger, to let processes work as designed and to let your business move without you dragging it by the collar.

And no, letting go doesn’t mean handing everything to someone else and hoping for the best. It can be as small as automating the steps you always repeat, or giving someone on your team ownership of one task you secretly hate, or finally making a hire you’ve been putting off because “there isn’t time”.

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is ask, “Why am I the one doing this at all?”

Be Consistent Not Irreplaceable 

Anyone can sprint. Anyone can hustle their way through a week, or a quarter, or a crisis.

But businesses, especially those tied to supply chain, shipping, and operational chaos, depend on something much more boring: consistency and longevity. And you can’t be consistent if you’re exhausted. You can’t be strategic if you’re buried. You can’t grow if you refuse to let go.

There’s nothing glamorous about being the person who does everything. There’s something incredibly powerful, though, about being the person who builds a system that doesn’t depend on them to survive.