A scene from Ford v Ferrari on why the system rewards visibility over excellence, and why it's still worth being the one who actually knows how to drive.
Last weekend I watched Ford v Ferrari movie.
There is a scene where Ken Miles is told to slow down at Le Mans, Because the suits at Ford wanted all three cars to cross the finish line together. For the photo… For the press release… For the optics…
Miles was the best driver on that track. Everyone knew it. And yet, the system asked him to shrink. Because his excellence was making the wrong people uncomfortable.
Don’t we see the same happening everywhere?
The system doesn't reward the best work. It rewards the most visible work.
And the Leo Beebes of the world thrive in this system. They know exactly when to cc the right people. They know how to take a team's work and present it as a personal achievement.
The Ken Miles types just want to build. They find politics exhausting and optics meaningless. And the system punishes them for it with invisibility.
The tragedy of Ken Miles wasn't that he lost. He technically did win Le Mans that day. The tragedy was that the system made sure nobody remembered.
In the world of Leo Beebes, be Ken Miles. Not because the system will reward you for it. It probably won't. But because Ken Miles actually knew how to drive….
