Atlas Shrugged for Business
"Atlas Shrugged is the most valuable book I have read. Ayn Rand provides profound insight into man’s relationship with society and develops for individuals, and corporations alike, a foundation for living a noble and rewarding life.” - Wayne Fortun, President and CEO, Hutchinson Technology Inc (www.atlasshrugged.com)
"There are many aspects of Atlas Shrugged that the reader can enjoy. It is a mystery with a totally original and suspenseful plot...It is a study of business heroes and their struggle to succeed against overwhelming odds.."1
The Heroes of Atlas Shrugged
Hank Rearden
Tall and gaunt with ash blond hair and icy light blue eyes, Hank Rearden, the country's most successful steel industrialist, started work in the iron mines at age 14. On the first day:
‘He stood, cursing himself, because he had made up his mind that he would not be tired. After a while he went back to his task; he decided that pain was not a valid reason for stopping.’ 2
By the age of 30 he owned the mines. He went on to establish a steel-making empire, and then for 10 years struggled to invent a metal superior to steel.
“..the nights spent at scorching ovens in the research laboratory of the mills … the meals, interrupted and abandoned at the sudden flash of a new thought, a thought to be pursued at once, to be tried, to be tested, to be worked on for months, and to be discarded as another failure … the one thought held immovably across a span of 10 years … the thought of a metal alloy that would do more than steel had ever done … the acts of … driving himself through the wringing torture of: '… still not good enough …' and going on with no motor save the conviction that it could be done -- then the day when it was done, and its result was called Rearden Metal."3
Read more at The Heroes of Atlas
Atlas Shrugged and Business Pride
Which ideas in Atlas Shrugged lead to business pride?
'"So you think that money is the root of all evil? . . . Have you ever asked what is the root of money? . . . Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. . . . Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil? . . . Have you ever looked for the root of production? . . . Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions - and you'll learn that man's mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth. . . . Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. . . . "
"Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason. . . . And when men live by trade . . . it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgment and the highest ability - and the degree of a man's productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?"'4
Read more at Business Pride from Atlas Shrugged
Business Virtues and Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged shows for each of the heroes the qualities of character required for great business sucess. A particularly striking example is Dagny Taggart's independence of thinking. This is reminiscent of such heroes of creativity as Thomas Edison, Michael Dell and Lawrence Hargrave. While the media, her management and the State Science Institute are telling her that Rearden metal cannot be relied upon, she goes ahead and builds the line, which is a magnificent success.
Read more at Business Virtues in Atlas Shrugged [still under construction]
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