Enzo Ferrari had everything a man could want in this life. A career as a race driver. A genius mind. A business and brand people would adore for centuries to come. He even got away with indulging his female fans way more than he should have—for the most part, anyway.
Alas, fate does not hand out freebies. Ferrari’s marriage collapsed long before it ended. The company almost went bankrupt more than once. And one “project,” his greatest creation, he could not save: his son. Alfredo Ferrari, a boy with great aptitude in designing engines, the man meant to inherit Enzo’s empire, died at just 24 years old.
In the movie Ferrari, we see Adam Driver portray a calculated, often almost cruelly detached Enzo Ferrari. But “Dino,” as his son was nicknamed? He brings even this larger-than-life figure to his knees. Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It was a source of power even Enzo Ferrari could not fix.
“Everything. I did everything!” he yells at his bitter, disillusioned wife Laura at some point. “Tables showing what calories he could eat. What went in, what came out. I graphed the degrees of albuminuria, the degrees of azotemia! Diuresis! I know more about nephritis and dystrophy than cars!”
Still, it was not enough. “You let him die,” Laura snaps back. And for once, Enzo Ferrari must admit even his magic has limits. “The father deluded himself! The great engineer! ‘I will restore my son to health.’ Swiss doctors, Italian doctors. Bullshit. I could not. I did not!” And now, all both of them could look at was a picture at the graveyard.
This is tragic. This is life. We each find our own unique way through it. We become experts in some skills yet stay complete amateurs in most others. We catch lucky breaks where others fail only to be stumped where our friends may easily proceed. In the end, it’s always a package deal.
A century-long legacy is reserved for the few—but engineers can’t fix bodies, and even billionaires can’t resurrect the dead. Don’t despair at your limitations. They’re nothing but reminders to stay humble and appreciate everything you have while you have it.