Advice That Could Change Your Life From a Fourth-Generation Autoworker

A fourth-generation Flint autoworker inspired me to start writing. Ben Hamper worked at the General Motors Truck and Bus Factory, on the Blazer/Suburban line. His specialty was rivets. Each night Ben used a rivet gun to fasten muffler hangers, cross bars, and four-wheel drive spring castings on trucks as they moved past on an assembly line. Ben built the underbelly of thousands of American automobiles.

I identify with Ben Hamper. And not for the obvious reason that office work can be just as systematic and repetitious as the assembly line. I could say that my rivet gun is the ‘reply all’ email, the calendar invite, or the one-page memo, but it’s deeper than that. I identify with Ben Hamper because he gave more to his job than he gave to himself.

There was a time when Ben’s entire contribution to the World could be summarized with one number: how many rivets he drove. And as that number grew, he paid an extraordinary price. His bones, muscles, and mind began to deteriorate. His is the story of a man who sacrificed everything for a bigger cause. Normally heroic, but this just seemed tragic. Rivets are not revolutions, cars are not combat.

If Ben had died in 1982, he would be forgotten. General Motors would have replaced him the following day and most of the Chevrolet Suburbans he helped build would be dead by now. But Ben Hamper is alive because he started writing. He began writing down stories from the assembly line in his spare time, eventually starting a column in an independent Michigan newspaper. I learned about Ben when I read his national bestseller.

It’s not the rags-to-riches part of this story that inspired me. What really hit me is the realization that I don’t have to limit my contribution to this World to the work I do for a salary.

What do you think? Share your ideas below!

Matt Johnson (@usbureaucrat) is an American bureaucrat. This post first appeared on the American Bureaucrat, a blog with one-page memos on American life, work, dreams, and death.