A Man and His Dream - A first in a number of reflections on competition

Last night, we stayed home and watched the movie detailing the efforts of Preston Tucker to launch his groundbreaking car, the Tucker Torpedo.









(Preston Tucker, commons.wikimedia.org)








(1946 Tucker Torpedo, info.detnews.com)


You might imagine that we are fans of the story at Local Motors.









(Tucker, The Man and His Dream, LucasFilm)


The interesting and indelible impression from the movie that I am left with is that somehow bad people were out to destroy Tucker and his dream.

Today people often ask us if there are individuals who would be "out for us". I feel the answer is "No." It is true, and you may have seen in some readers' comments responding to our press, that there are those individuals who are angry in their disbelief, but the vehemence of that disbelief should not be mistaken for evil intent.

What we would prefer to focus on is how a huge group of customers are looking for something different in their vehicle choice, and we intend to be a part of their desired solution. Certainly there is competitive business that would rather not see Local Motors succeed, IF it were at their expense, but the market is easily big enough to see many companies succeed in sharing this massive market.

Despite Francis Ford Coppola's excellent portrayal of Preston Tucker's story, I have a hard time believing that his situation was any different.

Tough competition, yes.

Individuals out to see him fail, no.

No doubt we will revisit this subject again.