The innovator, the American industrilist, and controversial figure died on this day.
Henry Ford has an endless amounts of accolades to stick with his name. Speaking of his name, until recently when Toyota knocked them out in 2021, the Ford name is one you’d see the most as the automaker was the United States best seller. But the name doesn’t come without controversy, even being admired by Hitler, and having bizarre social programs. However, the legend of Henry Ford should not be downplayed.
Ford made it possible for the average person to own a car, opening up so many opportunities for workers, families, and anyone who dreamed bigger than their carriage would take them. Even non-car people benefit from the development of the assembly line for mass production. Often, he’s credited for the structured 5 day, 40 hour work week, and love it or hate it, he brought the structure to the workforce and industrialization we’re used to today.
Henry Ford is buried across the street from a gas station and next to a bus stop, next to his wife in a small family cemetery. Just off Detroit’s Joy Road, it seems fitting that so many vehicles pass this site everyday.
Here are some Henry Ford quotes to inspire your dreams:
"Don’t find fault, find a remedy." - Henry Ford
"Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right." - Henry Ford
"There is only one rule for the industrialist and that is: make the best quality goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible." - Henry Ford
"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." - Henry Ford
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it." - Henry Ford
"Employers only handle the money – it is the customer who pays the wages." - Henry Ford
"Vision without execution is just hallucination." - Henry Ford
"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business." - Henry Ford
"To teach that a comparatively few men are responsible for the greatest forward steps of mankind is the worst sort of nonsense." - Henry Ford
"Obstacles are those frightful things that you see when you take your eyes off your goal." - Henry Ford
"It is not usual to speak of an employee as a partner, and yet what else is he?" - Henry Ford
"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing." - Henry Ford
"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking." - Henry Ford
"If you had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." - Henry Ford
“The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one's destiny to do, and then do it.” - Henry Ford
"Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success." - Henry Ford
"Experience is the thing of supreme value." - Henry Ford
"It is observed that successful people get ahead in the time that other people waste." - Henry Ford
"That the devil finds work for idle hands to do is probably true. But there is a profound difference between leisure and idleness." - Henry Ford
"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it." - Henry Ford
