My Life and Work

Come Back, Henry Ford

(5 stars)

jdanison

How could I get an MA in Eng Lit and never read Ford's autobiography? An extraordinary man! My mind is still reeling from hearing a captain of industry speaking of himself as a servant of society. And he practiced what he preached. $6/day was good money back then. He helped create our once thriving middle class, and the financiers & speculators he loathed have been true to character and are destroying it as I speak. They bankrupted Detroit and are doing all they can to steal the pensions of the working men Ford served! The reader is OK, a bit flat and monotonous, but doesn't get in the way of the text.

Inspiring

(5 stars)

D

If this was a compulsory read in schools I'm sure the world would be better for it. While there may have been a couple things I didn't agree with the author on, this was an excellent insight into business and how it should serve society. It also makes it clear while capitalism didn't work perfectly in Ford's time, it has certainly not improved in our modern time, with human greed flourishing more than ever. I enjoyed very much hearing about Ford's journey, way of thinking and the dawn of the mass market automobile. Of the approximately 50 books I've listened to on the this app, this has been one of the more enjoyable and quite probably the most useful.

(5 stars)

Wisdom’s Humble Pupil

This book can be summed up in the phrase that, “business is service and any activity which is not service is not business and must be eliminated.” There are hundreds of other nuggets herein of Henry’s personal philosophy and wisdom lived out in his life. It is a shame that this book was not published 1-2 years later or updated to have his account of 1927-1928. That is, the massive shutdown and retooling together with the move away from the model T in response to the challenge from Alfred Sloan’s GM. Possibly Ford’s finest hour and proof that he could pivot to ideas other than what got him primary success. The tale is epic on the order of Ford’s survival during the post war recession of 1920-1921, all without taking on loans. Throughout this book, Henry evenly harangues the evils of both opportunistic capitalists and financiers, who see businesses as financial instruments devoid of service, as well as the revolutionary labor organizer, who is never satisfied. Henry holds the view that cutting wages is never acceptable, as wages are the foundation of society’s spending power. This view would have been revolutionary among his peers for the period. His prediction that we would find materials with higher strength to weight ratios than metals came true in the form of carbon fiber/kevlar, etc. His prediction that we could make artificial wood better than grown wood came true in the form of composite woods used widely in home siding and decking as well as engineered plywood. Henry touches on his obsession with finding practical use for all waste products. Few people realize that we owe the universality of the BBQ briquette to Henry’s desire to make use of Ford’s waste sawdust and wood scraps. Henry holds the view that profit is the necessary result of service, and that service, not profit should be the aim of every company. Henry’s outlook on life is incredibly optimistic, namely that all problems all solvable in a profitable way, with application of “Ford” principles, namely seeking first to maximize service at minimum cost, good management, efficiency, and the ruthless elimination of waste. He seeks to prove the universality of these principles through their application to his trade school, his hospital, and his railroad, which are described at length in the last chapters. The “Founders” podcast has done several episodes on this book, but none can equal the wisdom transfer of reading it first hand and in full.

My Life and Work

(4.5 stars)

Joe Mantu Dey, BSEE

An inspirational story of a technological, financial, and social entrepreneur. Ford from childhood discovered his thrill and curiosity for how machines worked! He took apart clocks and engines to gain activity knowledge. He focused his mind on creating machines that were of value, utility, and service to his fellow man. He developed an organization that was focused on selling quality machines at the lowest possible price to the maximum number of consumers. Sam Walton of Walmart and the founder of Amazon adopted this pricing strategy to create the largest retail stores. Ford innovated in factory assembly line production. He transported the work to the worker to minimize extra movements by each worker. He looked at all factors that motivated and maximized the productivity of each worker. This examination led him to reduce each worker daily work time from 12 hours to 8 hours/day. He looked at his workers as partners. And accordingly, he adopted profit sharing for majority of factory workers.

Loved it!

(4.5 stars)

BookLover

This book is great! Henry Ford has excellent business sense but also is a fantastic motivator. Very inspiring and this book is ahead of its time. I agree with another reviewer that I imagined Henry was reading it. I feel like I’ve met Mr. Ford. Great book!!

great book great lessons

(5 stars)

José

what an excellent book. extraordinary individual. so much to learn from this person. recommended to all politically correct present generation so that they may correct their shallow ideology and with a bit of luck still do something constructive to leave for their children.

Read the International Jew as well

(5 stars)

Joshua Lundy AL, US

Henry Ford was one of the Greatest men of his time. I highly recommend reading the book I listed above if you enjoyed this. It's eye opening to say the least. Btw, it can't be found here. Ask yourself why...?

(3.5 stars)

adam

Interesting read about production and a philosophy of plenty. Ford was a troubled figure and some of his anti Semitic view come through here. He provided much material support to the third Reich and was an idol of sorts to Hitler.