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There’s a tiny thing
at the edge of a ship’s rudder called a trim tab. It’s
a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a
low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort
at all... One individual can be a trim tab… and change the
course of history.
—Buckminster Fuller
Trim Tab
as a Metaphor
“Call
me Trim Tab” - Buckminster Fuller
The engineer Buckminster
Fuller is often cited for his use of trim tabs as a metaphor
for leadership and personal empowerment. In the February 1972
issue of Playboy, Fuller said:
Something hit me very
hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think
of the Queen Mary—the whole ship goes by and then comes
the rudder. And there's a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder
called a trim tab.
It's a miniature rudder.
Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls
the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that
the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it's
going right by you, that it's left you altogether. But if you're
doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just
put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is
going to go. So I said, call me Trim Tab.
—Buckminster Fuller
The official newsletter
of the Buckminster
Fuller Institute is called "Trimtab."
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