In this discussion, the car is metaphorical. It is an easily recognizable symbol of success. It shows hard work and dedication that led to financial rewards that led to the ability to purchase something like that Ferrari. The reward might just as easily be playing cello in the symphony or taking a vacation on Maui.
Why is there a Ferrari there in the first place? How does one make a Ferrari so that the successful may purchase them? Allow me to suggest that the Ferrari is not a symbol of power or of greed, but instead is a symbol of kindness and cooperation. It all depends on how you look at it.
Everyone knows that cars consist of parts made of steel, rubber, leather, Plexiglas, copper wire and so on. Stop and think for a moment what that means. Just trace an oversimplified path of the steel for a little bit. Steel is made from iron that is mined from the ground. People got up in the morning, kissed their spouses at the door and went to work, mining iron. Others mined coal. The iron and coal were shipped to a furnace where other people formed it into rolled steel. The rolled steel was then shipped to the Ferrari factory where people cut, shaped, painted, polished and attached it to the car.
The steel represents the cooperation of many, many people. How many? How about millions? Billions? Someone else manufactured the tools the miners used. Those tools were made up of materials mined and collected by others. The food the workers ate was grown and harvested by others. It’s endless. The same endless web of cooperation enmeshes the truck drivers who shipped the goods, the folks harvesting the rubber, the ones milling the copper wire and so on.
OK, I can hear it now. “K T, you’re going off the deep end. You’re turning into one of those hippy-dip lefties who preaches love and brotherhood and holding hands to save the rainforest.”
Stop thinking in terms of politics for a moment. Look at it as enlightened self-interest. You see, I want that Ferrari. Well, my version of the Ferrari anyway. I want Ferraris to be cheap and plentiful. The Ferrari represents cooperation between people. I want there to be more cooperation so we can have more Ferraris. Notice that I'm not mentioning government handouts or contributions in any of this.
I’m in marketing. I’m relatively good at what I do. I’ve been doing it for a while. In the beginning, I was terrible at it. I’m still learning. What I’ve learned is that cooperation creates wealth. Kindness accelerates cooperation. Think about it. How well do you cooperate with unkind people?
This post is getting too long and I want to return to the topic later when I’ve run out of ideas and I need an easy entry in my blog. Wait a minute. Did I just write that? Dang! I only meant to think it.
Anyway, I'm going to go off and get some tuna that was caught by fishermen on a boat built by boatyard workers using tools made from steel created from iron mined by miners who ate food grown by…
2 comments:
It is also true that many of those millions of people hated each other. Some of your suppliers might even wish the others dead. Ahhh the glories of free trade and capitalism.
Buster,
It may well be that some of the people in the chain or perhaps whole groups hate each other. My point is that the hate produced nothing of value. Hate is a destructive emotion in a financial sense as well as a moral and sociological sense.
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