I wrote a post the other day sharing some of my favorite quotes from Part One of Atlas Shrugged. I’ll do the same when I am finished part two and three, but today want to write a short post about one paragraph from part two that stands out.
Ayn Rand is detailing the accelerating breakdown of society now that Reardon and Dagny are the only producers left. As the great men have left their industries, everything has become less, and less reliable. Delays and delinquency are the norm, and the effects of business that can not uphold their word are large.
“Mr. Quinn, of the Quinn Ball Bearing Company which had once moved from Connecticut to Colorado, waited a week for the freight train that carried his order to Rearden Steel. When the train arrived, the doors of the Quinn Ball Bearing Company’s plant were closed. Nobody traced the closing of a motor company in Michigan, that had waited for a shipment of ball bearings, its machinery idle, its workers on full pay; or the closing of a sawmill in Oregon, that had waited for a new motor; or the closing of a lumber yard in Iowa, left without supply; or the bankruptcy of a building contractor in Illinois who, failing to get his lumber on time, found his contracts cancelled and the purchasers of his homes sent wandering off down snowswept roads in search of that which did not exist anywhere any longer.”
It is a simple demonstration of how reliant businesses are on other businesses. Quinn Ball Bearing shuts down because of slow transportation —> so a motor company in Michigan has to shut down because they can’t get te ball bearings they need to make their motors —> so a sawmill in Oregon shuts down because it can’t get motors for its saws —> so a lumber yard shuts down because it can’t get lumber —> so a construction company shuts down because they can’t get lumber. The chain of events doesn’t end there; it continues on and on through society.
This is a dark and depressing example of unseen side effects. The policies that contributed to that train being late are only measured by the first order effects (like how many conductors were hired because of the shorter, slower trains) while ignoring the massive negatives that occur further removed from the policy.
Our societies are deeply interconnected. Bad policies can have devastating effects that are incredibly hard to predict, but on the flip side, good work can have a massively positive unseen effect.
To look on the bright side of this quote, you can start thinking about the long chain of positives that are created when you show up and do your job well. Maybe you are the railway conductor who can get the train in on time, so the ball bearing business stays open, so the motors are made, so the lumber is cut, so the contractor stays in business, and the homes are built. That effort at the start of the chain of events has a massive impact.
You have the same impact in your own life. No matter what you do, your work is not just affecting your customers and the people you interact with during the day, but also their customers, and their customers. By doing exceptional work and sticking to deadlines, you become the foundation of a prosperous society.
When you do your day to day work, it is easy to lose focus of the bigger picture and the positive impact you are having. Taking time to think through the unseen effects of your work is enriching and motivating.
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