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John Galt is among us
Here is an excellent article from the NYT on the influence of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
An excerpt:
Some business leaders might be unsettled by the idea that the only thing members of the leadership class have in common is their success. James M. Kilts, who led turnarounds at Gillette, Nabisco and Kraft, said he encountered “Atlas†at “a time in college life when everybody was a nihilist, anti-establishment, and a collectivist.†He found her writing reassuring because it made success seem rational.
“Rand believed that there is right and wrong,†he said, “that excellence should be your goal.â€
John P. Stack is one business executive who has taken Rand’s ideas to heart. He was chief executive of Springfield Remanufacturing Company, a retooler of tractor engines in Springfield, Mo., when its parent company, International Harvester, divested itself of the firm in the recession of 1982, the year Rand died.
Having lost his sole customer in a struggling Rust Belt city, Mr. Stack says, he took action like a hero out of “Atlas.†He created an “open book†company in which employees were transparently working in their own interest.
Mr. Stack says that he assigned every job a bottom line value and that every salary, including his own, was posted on a company ticker daily. Workplaces, he said, are notoriously undemocratic, emotionally charged and political.
Mr. Stack says his free market replaced all that with rational behavior. A machinist knew exactly what his working hour contributed to the bottom line, and therefore the cost of slacking off. This, Mr. Stack said, was a manifestation of the philosophy of objectivism in “Atlasâ€: people guided by reason and self-interest.
“There is something in your inner self that Rand draws out,†Mr. Stack said. “You want to be a hero, you want to be right, but by the same token you have to question yourself, though you must not listen to interference thrown at you by the distracters. The lawyers told me not to open the books and share equity.†He said he defied them. “ ‘Atlas’ helped me pursue this idiot dream that became SRC.â€
Mr. Stack said he was 19 and working in a factory when a manager gave him a copy of the book. “It’s the best business book I ever read,†he said. “I didn’t do well in school because I was a big dreamer. To get something that tells you to take your dreams seriously, that’s an eye opener.â€
Mr. Stack said he gave a copy to his son, Tim Stack, 25, who was so inspired that he went to work for a railroad, just like the novel’s heroine, Dagny Taggart.
Every year, 400,000 copies of Rand’s novels are offered free to Advanced Placement high school programs. They are paid for by the Ayn Rand Institute, whose director, Yaron Brook, said the mission was “to keep Rand alive.â€
Last year, bookstores sold 150,000 copies of the book. It continues to hold appeal, even to a younger generation. Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, who was born in 1958, and John P. Mackey, the chief executive of Whole Foods, who was 3 when the book was published, have said they consider Rand crucial to their success.
The book’s hero, John Galt, also continues to live on. The subcontractor hired to demolish the former Deutsche Bank building, which was damaged when the World Trade Center towers fell, was the John Galt Corporation.
While Atlas explores great “business principles” I believe the novel is more a warning about the influence of government. Its a wonderful story about the constant struggle between capitalism and communism and everything this struggle touches.
I highly recommend you read this book.
My first exposure to Ayn Rand’s stuff was as a kid walking around Western Wats in 1999. The guy who owned the joint at the time used to randomly ask the question to his people “who is john galt?”
Great book.
Too bad it wasn’t part of the hurdles we had to jump to get a degree from byu. Built to Last, The Art of War… a bunch of others… where was Ayn Rand?
Left by Just Justin on 09/15/2007I saw John Stack at the Inc 500 conference (he was there as Jack Stack, but his title was President and CEO of SRC Holdings Corp, so I think Jack=John).
He wrote a book years back called The Great Game of Business about what he calls open book management, and sounds like a lot of his ideas for that came from Atlas.
Left by Jeremy on 09/15/2007I’ve only read parts of it so far, and I must admit the book looks intimidating because of it’s thickness, but I hear it’s also difficult to put down.
Left by Russell Page on 09/15/2007@ Russ
Get it on MP3 or CD. I listened to it driving to and from appointments. Its about 12 hours in length and that’s abridged. I loved it so much that I listened to it twice.
A great read and a great listen.
Left by Chris Knudsen on 09/16/2007Russ,
Yes, the size is daunting. But like you said, it is indeed very difficult to put down. I just finished Rand’s The Fountainhead which was also very good, but Atlas Shrugged definitely wins the trophy. An amazing piece of literature, saturated with modern applicability.
Who is John Galt?
Left by Connor on 09/19/2007