We were recently invited to test drive a Fiat500 Abarth at the Las Vegas Speedway. The compact, Italian-designed car is named afterKarl Abarth, a legend who brought innovation to the racing world through hard work anddetermination. Men like to tinker. We like to fix things, build thingsand make things better. It doesn’t really matter if we’re good at it. Wejust like going to our basements and garages for an afternoon to, at the very least, try.Some of us proudly show off our wobbly, duct-taped results; others -- those who are moremechanically inclined -- might show off a now-working household gadget or a smoothlyticking timepiece.Men also like cars. Many of us have fond memories ofspending weekends working with our fathers on the family car, tinkering with hoses and fanbelts. Like overeager surgical assistants, we’d stand close by and hand themwrenches and screwdrivers and, when given the nod, happily spray copious amounts of WD-40on rusted bolts. As the oil and dirt built up on our hands, we started to feel more likehim, more like a man. We learned how to repair, maintain and, when stuck by the side ofthe road, without the right tools or parts, think creatively. We learned routine andresponsibilities and how to work through frustration and adversity. Thoselessons have taught us to bang on the alternator just to a get the old clunker started andto fine-tune the timing on a classic sports car. We work with what we have and try to makeit better.Karl Abarth was a more successful tinkerer than most. A mechanic andmotorcycle racer, he built and tuned his own rides, winning several European championshipsin the late 1920s. After a serious crash in 1939 that left him hospitalized for the betterpart of a year, he shifted his talents to design and engineering. It wasn’t easy torecover, and it wasn’t easy to give up racing. But Abarth knew how to make the bestout of a bad situation.Many of us have given up on our dreams, not because ofsome horrible accident or insurmountable obstacle but because of the slow grind of life.We make choices and have false starts, we build up debt and have too few assets to showfor it. Maybe we’re unlucky or maybe we don’t work hard enough. Either way,boyhood dreams eventually give way to a 9-to-5. We work for a paycheck -- we settle -- butare we just giving up too easily?After his accident and the end of his racingcareer, Abarth had a few false starts but eventually established his own company and beganchurning out after-market performance parts, DIY upgrade kits and stockcars. After findingsuccess with Fiat-derived racecars,Abarth focused most of his attention on making models produced by the Italian automakerrace-worthy. One of the cars most associated with the famed designer is the Fiat 500Abarth, originally launched in 1958.The Fiat 500 was an ideal city car --small, stylish and affordable. While it was a popular choice for post-war Europe, it wasjust a city car. Nothing about the Cinquecento was extraordinary. But rarely doesanything start out extraordinary. Karl Abarth got out his tools and started tinkering onthe practical little 500. The car that came out of the factory producing only 13horsepower (yes, you read that right) was soon winning races and breaking records. Abarth was smart, motivated and capable, but he was also just a regular guy whoenjoyed working in his garage. He was a motorcycle racer at heart, but after that dreamended, he found a new way for himself. He didn’t let his situation or his workdefine him -- he defined his work. He turned his passion into a career and his career intoa legacy. We may not all be where we want to be in life, but itdoesn’t mean that we have to accept it. We can make any situation better.On those rainy Sunday afternoons, we were doing more than tuning up the family car -- wewere learning the lessons that made us the men that we are today. We watched dad come backfrom a hard day’s work only to throw himself into tuning up the family car, fixingthe leaky roof or helping us with our homework. Whether it’s knowing howto change a tire, having the desire to build a better engine or simply having the grit notto give up, we absorbed the lessons of our fathers. It doesn’t matter if your dadwas a mechanic or a bookkeeper, a physicist or a fireman. What matters is that hetook the time to show you something and you took the time to learn. He wasn’t justteaching you how to be a man but how to be a better man.A father does not haveto pass on a kingdom in order for a son to be successful. A good father gives his son thetools to build his own. Nothing starts out extraordinary. We just need to keepbuilding.Like Abarth used to say, “Go faster than yesterday.” Continue Reading

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