At 5:12 am this morning, the Bay Area marked the 100th anniversary of the Great San Francisco Earthquake.
Almost twenty years ago, I had the opportunity to meet with a survivor of the Great Quake, when I was doing some volunteer work in a convalescent ward.
“Jack” was an enterprising 10 year-old living in San Francisco when the earthquake struck. Among other things, the 7.8 magnitude quake knocked out all of the telegraph lines, severely disrupting the operations of the large west coast railroad companies, most of which had their headquarters in the city. In the days after the earthquake, Jack got a job running messages from the rail yards to the headquarters of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Apparently, he so impressed the company brass that they hired him on and, ultimately, paid for him to go to school. He continued to work for the railroad through the ensuring decades, opening up new routes, helping the company manage the transition to diesel engines, living through the mergers, expansions, etc. until he retired at the age of 77, having spent sixty seven years of his life working for the same company!
Fairly impressive, especially for those of us in an industry where most companies are hardly more than a few years old. Yet, despite this wonderful history, Jack did have some cautionary words about devoting your life to a company. “After all,” Jack pointed out, “No one from the railroad has come to visit me in the hospital.” Buildings can fall. Companies can merge or disappear. But, ultimately, it is our connection to people, rather than institutions, that prove the most lasting.