A Faster Horse
Finding your place in Ikigai
My first car…
…was a 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang. Considered a classic now it was a beat-up 11-year-old vehicle with only 1st and 3rd gear that cost me $250 in cash.
Having no second gear made the drive home an adventure. Given that I had all of five minutes experience operating a manual transmission, it was even more so.
If you can imagine, replacing the transmission by hand was the easy part of owning this car.
The gas gauge would have been more aptly named a guess gauge as it wouldn’t read below a quarter of a tank. I never knew exactly how much fuel I had in the car.
Every so often, the generator would quit working. It happened the first time while driving down the highway to work.
The GEN light came on, and I ignored it thinking if the battery died, I could get a jump start at work.
What didn’t cross my mind was that the car needs a battery to start AND fire the spark plugs.
Suddenly with cars whizzing by me the engine started to sputter and stall.
Pulling over I popped up the hood, jumped out and started wiggling any wire I could find hoping to restore the connection before the engine died.
One of the wires did the trick and the engine ran smoothly again.
I had no idea which wire or wires; every time, it seemed like a different one. Yes, this happened many times.
Even with those quirks, I loved that car.
What my car would have looked like when brand new.
50 Years
The Mustang is a legendary vehicle, so when the 50th anniversary approached, Ford Motor Company announced a redesign to commemorate the milestone.
The project is chronicled in the documentary ‘A Faster Horse.’
The title is a play-off of the Mustang name and something Henry Ford was famous for saying.
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
The star of the documentary is the Chief Engineer. He owns the project end to end.
In the documentary, it was pointed out that you were a Chief Engineer once. You either created a successful car and got promoted, or you failed, and your career was over.
No in-between.
I found his deputy much more interesting.
A Supporting Role
The deputy for the 50th Anniversary Mustang was on his fourth project. He didn’t seek promotion or want to be a Chief Engineer.
Instead, he saw his role as ensuring the Chief Engineer succeeded.
As a deputy, he found satisfaction in having helped three prior Chief Engineers launch projects and get promoted.
Did Ford recognize the contribution he made? Could it be that he was as important, if not more so than the ‘inexperienced’ CEs running the launches?
I wonder how many of those CEs would have been successful without this deputy.
Wonderful personal story and I agree my first car 1971 Super Beetle VW with a sunroof was quirky but fun. I would agree what makes a difference is willing the good of other people and enjoying it!
A profound example to look at this question, David. I have found the supporting role much more satisfying than the staring one.