Perhaps one of my favorite movies of the early 1990’s was the 1993 Disney version of The Three Musketeers staring Charlie Sheen (Aramis), Kiefer Sutherland (Athos), Oliver Platt (Porthos) and Chris O’Donnell as the want-to-be Musketeer (D’Artagnan).
Throughout the movie, there are quite a few comical moments, some of which I can relate to both personally and professionally.
As the Three Musketeers and D’Artagnan ride throughout the land to stop the plot of the evil Cardinal, they find out very quickly just how small a world it is, and how long-reaching is the arm of Cardinal Richelieu—the team must dodge cannon balls fired from a nearby castle and elude hoards of people determined to claim the bounty set on their heads by the Cardinal.
Such is the geosynthetics containment industry. While the industry is worldwide, it is a somewhat specialized niche market in which any failure does not take long to circulate through the industry nor to the bounty hunters and naysayer’s seeking to discredit everything we do. The long-reaching arm of a failure can be just as impactful as that of a cannonball to a well-meaning musketeer: costing our companies, our industry and our clients irreparable damage!
In the case of the Three Musketeers, the evil plot of the Cardinal is implied to have been in the works for several years, as the Cardinal forged relationships and created a delicate plan for his takeover. In the geosynthetics containment industry, failures may be in the works for years, before they are ever realized. Although most of the failures can be avoided by proper design, material selection, installation and construction quality assurance which all occur on the front side of the construction process, once problems are covered up and a facility becomes operational, the problems may not be revealed until it is too late.
In the movie, D’Artagnan uncovers the plot and is able to escape to reveal the plot to the musketeers. From that point forward, the entire focus of the team of musketeers is on foiling the plot and saving their beloved King. In truth, our industry should view itself as though we are the Three Musketeers (Owners, Designers, and Subcontractors) fighting together to preserve and protect our clients and their environments as well as our industry.
Both individually, and as a community, we need to question and challenge ourselves to see if what we are doing is for the long-term betterment and preservation of our clients and the industry. As we push ourselves to excellence, we will have more D’Artagnan’s wanting to jump on board and join the team and fewer fighting against us. As an industry we should declare: “All for one and one for all”!
