You Are the Weakest Link...Goodbye!

"It takes hundreds of nuts to hold a car together, but it takes only one of them to scatter it all over the highway."
- Evan Esar

I like how Esar uses the metaphor of a car falling apart to illustrate just how important teamwork is. In group situations, it takes the entire group to be successful, but one person can just as easily ruin it for everyone. In a college setting, there is the all-too-familiar position where a group divides up the work for a project, and on the day of the presentation, someone is absent, and therefore a portion of the presentation is gone, and the group suffers.

Perhaps Esar would agree with the phrase "if you want something done, it's best to do it yourself." Relying on other people can have negative consequences those particular people have huge flaws. I myself prefer to do things alone, because I would much rather determine my own destiny, than put it in the hands of a few unreliable people. On the other side of that, if I became lazy and remiss in my duties for a project, I wouldn't want someone else to suffer for my laziness.

One must also notice the magnitude of Esar's comparison. If something is wrong with a car, and the parts of it scatter over the highway, the car is ruined and the people inside of it could be seriously injured or dead. Obviously, relying on other people and/or things doesn't always have this worst-case scenario. Who could blame him for wanting to be in control of his own destiny, though?