INSPIRATIONAL STORY:HENRY FORD

HENRY FORD:

Some consider him an icon of the self -
made man. Some accuse him of being
a liar and a traitor. His revolutionary
innovative concept, called after him
“ Fordism” , helped to increase the
economic prosperity of the United
States in the 1940 s to 1960 s. He was
also responsible for the creation of
the Ford Foundation – one of the
world’ s richest philanthropic
organizations .
During his life he was known as a
man , who in spite of his wealth
continued to care for the common
man . But also as a person , who was
responsible for publishing nearly a
hundred anti- Semitic articles in his
newspaper the Dearborn
Independent.
There is no single opinion of Henry
Ford . One thing however that can be
confidently said about him is that he
was a great man, who was not afraid
to dream BIG and go after his dream…

Poor Student and Poor Farmer
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863
on a farm near Dearborn. When Ford
was 12 years old his mother died
during childbirth, leaving him and his
5 siblings in the care of their father.
Until the age of 15 Ford attended
school , even though he strongly
disliked it. He never learned to spell or
read well and wrote only using the
simplest sentences.
His lack of interest in his studies was
compensated by his fascination for
machinery and mechanical objects . He
repaired his first watch at the age of
13 and soon neighbors and friends
started to bring him their broken
watches to fix .
Since his early childhood Ford knew
that farm life was not for him and as
soon as he got the chance he headed
to Detroit to become an apprentice . In
1882 , Henry finished his
apprenticeship and was qualified to
work as a machinist.
This did not appeal to his father at all.
He offered Ford a bargain – forty
acres of timberland in exchange for
the promise that he gave up
machinery . Ford accepted the
proposal , and used the land to build
a small house , sawmill and a first-class
machinist’ s workshop ( to the great
disappointment of his dad) .
During this time Ford also met and
then married Clara Bryant.
In 1891 he finally found a job at
Edison Illuminating Company and
moved with his wife back to Detroit . In
1896 , at age 32, Henry Ford completed
his first successful horseless carriage,
which he called the Quadricycle.
“ Failure is simply the opportunity
to begin again, this time more
intelligently . ”
Ford proved this quote to be true with
his own life. His first two automobile
companies failed miserably. The first
time his investors withdrew after Ford
spent $86 ,000 without producing a
car that could be sold. The second
time he failed even though a car was
ready.
Desperately trying to attract publicity
for his projects, Henry started building
and driving his own race cars.
However , the average person did not
need a race car . They needed
something reliable .
Ford refused to give up and by 1903
convinced twelve people to invest a
total of $ 28, 000 in another motor
company . In the same year the
company sold its first Model A car for
$ 850 . Ford’s business finally took off .
By 1907 the Ford Motor Company
profits exceeded $1 ,100 , 000 .

Rich and famous…
In 1908, Henry Ford designed the
Model T car that was supposed to
appeal to the masses . It was light,
strong , fast and came only in one
color – black . The car became so
popular that it was selling faster than
Ford could produce them . He started
to look for ways to speed up the
manufacturing process .
It took him almost 4 years , but in 1913
he added the first motorized assembly
line in the plant . It cut construction
time and lowered the cost of each car ,
making them affordable to every
family.
Henry Ford was now officially not only
rich, but also famous. If his
manufacturing methods were
revolutionary for most people, his
work philosophy came as a shock! He
paid his workers almost twice as much
as other auto companies did . His
reasoning was simple – greater pay
will make the worker happier and,
therefore, faster on the job and they
would be more likely to stay with
company longer, leading to less
down- time training new workers .
For his work policy Ford was called “ a
traitor to his class ” by other
industrialists and professionals.
He did not care !
In 1925 Ford was producing 10,000
cars every 24 hours, gaining 60
percent of America’ s total car market .

Million Dollar Mistake and
Personal Struggles
Ford was an inflexible man and he
continued to insist on producing only
the Model T , even though public
tastes began to shift. When he finally
realized his mistake, Ford Motor
Company had already lost its
dominant position to the General
Motors ( GM ) company . In 1927 the
Chevrolet had officially become the
best -selling car.
Slowly the friction between Henry
Ford and his only child Edsel Ford
began to grow . Edsel did not support
his father’ s method of running the
company , and Henry Ford did not
trust his son to run it by himself. In
1938 Henry Ford suffered a stroke , but
came back to run the company . In
1941 he had another stroke. Only two
years later Edsel died from stomach
cancer at the age of 49 . Ford ’s
grandson, Henry Ford II , took over
the company after the war.

Henry Ford passed away on April 7 ,
1947 .