Table Of ContentDISCOVERING
AY N RA N D
Modern Essays on Her Life & Ideas
Discovering
Ayn Rand
Modern Essays on
Her Life and Ideas
F E E
oundation For conomic ducation
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ISBN (ebook): 978-157246-538-1
Special thanks to the Institute for Humane
Studies for permission to include Steve Simpson’s
chapter, “Crony-in-Chief: Donald Trump epitomizes
Ayn Rand’s ‘Aristocracy of Pull.’”
Special thanks to Libertarianism.org for
permission to include George Smith’s chapter,
“Ayn Rand on Fascism.”
2018
Published under the Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License
Contents
Part 1: Your Life and Personality
7 Ayn Rand’s Career Advice Is Still on Point by Kirk
Barbera
13 The Sanction of the Victim by Steven Horwitz
17 Ayn Rand and the Pony Express by Laurie Rice
23 Third World Objectivism by Shanu Athiparambath
Part 2: Today’s Politics
27 Did Edward Snowden Draw His Main Inspiration from
Ayn Rand? by Jeffrey A. Tucker
32 Crony-in-Chief: Donald Trump Epitomizes Ayn
Rand’s “Aristocracy of Pull” by Steve Simpson
48 Would Ayn Rand Approve of Rule by a Rich and
Powerful Capitalist? by Christopher Machold
51 Trump’s Ego Is Actually Too Small by Dan Sanchez
56 Montreal Learned the Wrong Lesson from Ayn Rand
by Daniel J. Mitchell
59 Anthem and the Meaning of the Light Bulb Ban by
Jeffrey A. Tucker
Part 3: Her Books and Ideas
66 What the Critics Get Wrong About Atlas Shrugged
by Nate Russell
70 What Rand Meant by Altruism by Gary M. Galles
74 Ayn Rand on Fascism by George Smith
80 We Cannot, Must Not, Give Up Our Ideals by Jeffrey
A. Tucker
84 A Totalitarian State Can Only Rule a Desperately
Poor Society by Ryan Miller
88 Ayn Rand: Sovietologist by Steven Horwitz
91 Ayn Rand: A Centennial Appreciation by Chris
Matthew Sciabarra
Part 4: Her Life and Personality
101 Ayn Rand’s Heroic Life by Jeffrey A. Tucker
103 Ayn, What if Atlas Snapped? by Kirk Barbera
108 That Day I Interviewed Ayn Rand by Jeffrey A.
Tucker
111 Nathaniel Branden, Rest in Peace by Jeffrey A.
Tucker
115 Ayn Rand, the Movies, and the Idea of America by
Laurie Rice
Appendix
121 Textbook of Americanism by Ayn Rand
Part 1
Your Life and
Personality
Ayn Rand’s Career Advice Is
Still on Point
Kirk Barbera
“Look.” Roark got up, reached out, tore a thick branch
off a tree, held it in both hands, one fist closed at each
end; then, his wrists and knuckles tensed against the
resistance, he bent the branch slowly into an arc. “Now
I can make what I want of it: a bow, a spear, a cane, a
railing. That’s the meaning of life.”
“Your strength?”
“Your work.” He tossed the branch aside. “The material
the earth offers you and what you make of it.
All great writers are polarizing. Ayn Rand, author of The
Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, certainly fits this proposition.
People tend to either love or hate her work. But as Winston
Churchill once said, “You have enemies? Good. That means
you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
What cannot be denied is the enormity of Rand’s success.
After having everything taken from her in Soviet Russia, she fled
to America with nothing. She proceeded to work year after year,
taking odd jobs; sometimes working on movie sets in Hollywood,
sometimes working as a waitress. But she never lost sight of her
goal: to be a novelist.
Kirk Barbera Ayn Rand’s Career Advice Is Still on Point
It would take decades—including enduring the great
depression—before she finally achieved success in writing. Her
books have sold well over 30 million copies. In fact, Atlas Shrugged
has shaped America’s intellectual landscape. And decades after
her death, not a week goes by when she isn’t mentioned somewhere
in the public.
Below are some quotes taken from various novels, interviews,
and other writings, where she explains her views on career
success. The advice is applicable not only to Rand’s success but,
as you will see, to the careers of any great achiever.
Continually Seek to Understand
Every man is free to rise as far as he’s able or willing, but
the degree to which he thinks determines the degree to
which he’ll rise.
Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely
frustration, for the life you deserved but never have
been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of
your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists,
it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
In his autobiographical book, Delivering Happiness: The
Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose, CEO of Zappos.com Tony
Hsieh conveys his lifelong search for self-knowledge. Before
starting Zappos, he founded numerous companies, some that
failed miserably, some that succeeded but in the end, made
him miserable.
Starting with a worm farm when he was 9, he moved on
to a button-making business in junior high and then various
endeavors in high school and college until he landed a well-
paying job at Oracle—that bored him. He quit and started a
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Kirk Barbera Ayn Rand’s Career Advice Is Still on Point
company, LinkExchange, which was the first click-banner ad
company on the web. Eventually, he discovered that he hated
what the company had become, so he sold it. Later, he started his
own nightclub, then a variety of other companies.
Along the way, he learned lessons about what works and
what doesn’t, what he loved and what he hated. Finally, he got all
that he wanted with Zappos. Ten years after its founding, it was
purchased by Amazon for over $1 billion.
Love the Work
“But you see,” said Roark quietly, “I have, let’s say, sixty
years to live. Most of that time will be spent working.
I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in
it, then I’m only condemning myself to sixty years of
torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the
best way possible to me.”
If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.
“What in hell are you really made of, Howard? After
all, it’s only a building. It’s not the combination of holy
sacrament, Indian torture, and sexual ecstasy that you
seem to make of it.”
“Isn’t it?”
In Creativity Inc, Ed Catmull, President of Pixar Animation
and Disney Animation, explains his lifelong love of technology’s
ability to bring art to life. As a boy, he sat transfixed as close to
the T.V. as his parents would allow, waiting for the show “Walt
Disney’s Wonderful World of Color.” Every week Walt himself
would explain how the Disney magic was created. He demystified
it. Catmull fell in love.
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Kirk Barbera Ayn Rand’s Career Advice Is Still on Point
From then on he dedicated himself to the endeavor of using
technology to bring art to life. He worked for George Lucas in a
division of his company that would eventually be sold to Steve
Jobs. Through twenty years of dedicated work, Catmull stayed
true to his mission: to create the first feature-length animated
film done completely on a computer. Until was born Toy Story.
Be Purposeful
I want to know that I’ve accomplished something. I want
to feel that it had some meaning. At the last summing
up, I want to be sure it wasn’t all—for nothing.
A career requires the ability to sustain a purpose over
a long period of time, through many separate steps,
choices, decisions, adding up to a steady progression
toward a goal . . . In the course of a career, every
achievement is an end in itself and, simultaneously, a
step toward further achievements . . . In a career, there
is no such thing as achieving too much: the more one
does, the more one loves one’s work.
“I do not build in order to have clients. I have clients in
order to build.”
As described in Wharton Professor Richard Shell’s book,
Springboard: Launching your Personal Search for Success, the
first TV Chef personality, Julia Child had one maxim for career
success: “The more I cook the more I like to cook.” That’s it.
She found her craft and dedicated her life to it. Utilizing her
youthful desire to become a novelist, she applied her writing
skills in penning the 734-page best seller: Mastering the Art of
French Cooking. Then she was asked to teach people how to cook
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