#266 Henry Ford's Autobiography

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Sep 8, 2022

Discover the captivating insights of Henry Ford's autobiography, emphasizing that true education comes from life experiences rather than formal schooling. Ford's philosophy centers on serving people over chasing profits, advocating for accessible, high-quality products. Embrace the idea of continuous improvement, viewing challenges as growth opportunities. The discussion also covers the importance of efficient business practices and ethical manufacturing, illustrating how Ford revolutionized industries with a service-oriented mindset.

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ANECDOTE

Land's Inspirations

Edwin Land, inventor of Polaroid, studied influential figures like Ford, Edison, and Eastman.
David Senra suggests studying the most impactful entrepreneurs: Steve Jobs and Henry Ford.

INSIGHT

Service Over Profit

Henry Ford's autobiography, "My Life and Work," focuses on his business philosophy.
It emphasizes service as the sole purpose of business, not profit.

ADVICE

How, Not What

Emulate successful founders' how, not just what they build.
Small egos don't build giant companies, so use your ego as internal drive.

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Billy, Alfred, and General Motors

William Pelfrey

This book tells the story of two extraordinary men, Billy Durant and Alfred Sloan, who played pivotal roles in shaping General Motors into one of the most successful enterprises in U.S. history. It explores their contrasting management styles and how they contributed to the growth and legacy of GM during the formative decades of twentieth-century America. The narrative includes vivid portraits of other automotive legends and offers timeless lessons for business leaders and history enthusiasts.

Billy Durant: creator of General Motors

Lawrence R. Gustin

This book provides a detailed account of Billy Durant's life and his significant impact on the early days of the auto industry. Gustin interviewed Durant's widow, his personal secretaries, and others who knew him, using previously unpublished autobiographical notes, letters, and personal papers. The book explores why Durant, despite his immense influence, was nearly forgotten for decades and how he made Flint one of the great industrial centers of America.

Setting the Table

Danny Meyer

In this landmark book, Danny Meyer recounts his experiences and the lessons he learned in developing his philosophy of Enlightened Hospitality. Meyer started Union Square Cafe at the age of 27 and has since built a restaurant empire. His philosophy, which emphasizes strong in-house relationships and customer satisfaction, is applicable to any business. The book covers various aspects of running a restaurant, including selecting real estate, hiring, training, and providing exceptional service. Meyer's approach to hospitality extends to guests, the community, suppliers, and investors, and he provides practical advice on how to maintain long-term success through these relationships.

Land's Polaroid

Peter C. Wensberg

This book offers a detailed account of Edwin Land's life and his role in founding Polaroid, highlighting his innovative approach to science and technology. It provides insights into the development of instant photography and the company's history from its inception to the 1980s.

The Everything Store

Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Brad Stone

The Everything Store is a revealing and definitive biography of Amazon.com and its driven founder, Jeff Bezos. The book chronicles Amazon's journey from its humble beginnings as a mail-order book seller to its transformation into a global retail and technology giant. Brad Stone enjoyed unprecedented access to current and former Amazon employees and Bezos family members, providing a detailed, fly-on-the-wall account of life at Amazon. The book highlights Bezos's relentless pursuit of new markets, his innovative ventures such as the Kindle and cloud computing, and how he transformed retail in a manner comparable to Henry Ford's impact on manufacturing.

My Years with General Motors

Alfred Sloan

My Years with General Motors is a classic business book that provides a detailed account of Alfred P. Sloan Jr.'s experience at the helm of General Motors. Published in 1963, it has been praised for its practical and insightful look into the 'discipline of management.' The book covers Sloan's strategies, including market analysis, financial and inventory controls, and the benefits of economies of scale. It also discusses key business decisions, such as the division of cars by customer class and the introduction of innovations like four-wheel brakes and ethyl gasoline. The book is highly regarded, with endorsements from figures like Bill Gates and inclusion in Business Week's 'bookshelf of indispensable reading'.

Titan

The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

Ron Chernow

This biography by Ron Chernow provides an in-depth look at John D. Rockefeller, Sr., the founder of Standard Oil and one of the most influential figures in American history. Drawing on unprecedented access to Rockefeller’s private papers, Chernow reconstructs Rockefeller’s troubled origins, his single-minded pursuit of wealth, and his profound religiosity. The book also delves into Rockefeller’s philanthropic efforts, including his generous donations to the Rockefeller Foundation, the University of Chicago, and Rockefeller University. Chernow’s narrative synthesizes Rockefeller’s public and private lives, revealing a complex and multifaceted individual who was both a ruthless businessman and a devoted philanthropist. The book captures a pivotal moment in American history, documenting the post-Civil War shift from small businesses to giant corporations and featuring cameos by notable figures such as Ida Tarbell, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan.

George Lucas, A Life

Brian Jay Jones

My life and work

Ford, Henry, Crowther, Samuel

E. Kalita

Mrs Henry Ford

Henry Ford

Samuel Crowther

Ford Henry 1863-1947

Henry Henry Ford

In this autobiography, Henry Ford recounts his early life on a farm in Michigan, his fascination with mechanics, and his journey to becoming a successful businessman. The book covers his innovative approaches to industry and mass production, his views on business, wages, and social concerns, and how he applied his principles to various sectors beyond the automotive industry. Ford also shares his stringent and sometimes controversial views on life, business, and society[1][3][4].

Churchill

Walking with Destiny

Andrew Roberts

In this landmark biography, Andrew Roberts provides a deeply personal and historically rich portrait of Winston Churchill. With exclusive access to new material such as transcripts of War Cabinet meetings, diaries, letters, and unpublished memoirs from Churchill's contemporaries, Roberts reveals the hidden forces behind Churchill's legendary drive. The book explores Churchill's life in detail, from his early years to his leadership during World War II, highlighting his courage, tenacity, leadership, and moral conviction. It also discusses his complex relationships, including his interactions with King George VI and Franklin Roosevelt, and evaluates his legacy in the context of modern leadership challenges.

What I learned from rereading My Life and Work by Henry Ford.

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[7:45] True education is gained through the discipline of life.

[8:00] Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg. (Founders #263)

[9:40] Reading this book is like having a one-sided conversation with one of the greatest entrepreneurs to ever live who just speaks directly to you and tells you, “Hey this is my philosophy on company building.”

[12:40] His main idea is that business exists for one reason and one reason only —to provide service for other people.

[12:50] Everything I do is serving my true end — which is to make a product that makes other people's lives better.

[13:47] A sale is proof of utility.

[15:00] The sense of accomplishment from overcoming difficulty is satisfying in a way that a life of leisure and ease will never be.

[16:00] I think Amazon's culture is largely based on one thing. It's not based on 14. It's based on customer obsession. That is what Bezos would die on the hill for. —Invest Like The Best: Ravi Gupta

[20:04] Later Bezos recalled speaking at an all-hands meeting called to address the assault by Barnes & Noble. “Look, you should wake up worried, terrified every morning,” he told his employees. “But don’t be worried about our competitors because they`re never going to send us any money anyway. Let’s be worried about our customers and stay heads-down focused.” — The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone (Founders #179)

[20:40] Henry Fords philosophy: Get rid of waste, increase efficiency through thinking and technology, drop your prices and make more money with less profit per car, watch your costs religiously, when needed bring that business process in house, and always focus on service.

[21:15] Money comes naturally as the result of service. —Henry Ford

[21:56] Churchill by Paul Johnson. (Founders #225)

[22:10] Churchill tells his son “Your idle and lazy life is very offensive to me. You appear to be leading a perfectly useless existence.”

[23:45] 3 part series on the founder of General Motors Billy Durant and Alfred Sloan:

Billy Durant Creator of General Motors: The Story of the Flamboyant Genius Who Helped Lead America into the Automobile Age by Lawrence Gustin. (Founders #120)

Billy, Alfred, and General Motors: The Story of Two Unique Men, A Legendary Company, and a Remarkable Time in American History by William Pelfrey. (Founders #121)

My Years with General Motors by Alfred Sloan. (Founders #122)

[24:16] Henry Ford's ONE idea that was different from every other automobile manufacturer:

He was determined to concentrate on the low end of the market, where he believed that high volume would drive costs down and at the same time feed even more demand for the product. It was a fundamental difference in philosophy. — Billy, Alfred, and General Motors: The Story of Two Unique Men, A Legendary Company, and a Remarkable Time in American History by William Pelfrey. (Founders #121)

[25:50] There must be a better way of doing that. And so through a thousand processes.

[27:59] The only way to truly understand what you're doing is to do it for a long time and focus on it.

[28:30] It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game that you've been playing all your life. — Mickey Mantle

[32:25] One idea at a time is about as much as anyone can handle.

[35:45] Picking up horse shit used to be a job.

[37:30] That is the way with wise people — they are so wise and practical that they always know to a dot just why something cannot be done; they always know the limitations. That is why I never employ an expert in full bloom. If ever I wanted to kill opposition by unfair means I would endow the opposition with experts. They would have so much good advice that I could be sure they would do little work.

[38:20] I cannot say that it was hard work. No work with interest is ever hard.

[40:45] None of this works unless you bet on yourself. And usually you are not in the best position when you have to make this decision.

[49:59] The most beautiful things in the world are those from which all excess weight has been eliminated.

[50:15] Rick Rubin: In the Studio by Jake Brown. (Founders #245)

[54:10] I can entirely sympathize with the desire to quit a life of activity and retire to a life of ease. I have never felt the urge myself.

[55:30] I don't wanna make a low quality cheap product. I wanna make a high quality cheap product. To do that he's literally got to invent the ability to mass produce cars —which did not exist before Henry Ford.

[56:00] A principle rather than an individual is at work. And that the principle is so simple that it seems mysterious.

[56:25] He says if we can save 10 steps a day for each of the 12,000 employees that I have, you will save 50 miles of wasted motion and misspent energy every day. The way Ford’s brain works is very similar to the way Rockefeller's brain works. — Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. (Founders #248)

[58:25] What a line! : No one ever considers himself expert if he really knows his job. A man who knows a job sees so much more to be done than he has done, that he is always pressing forward and never gives up an instant of thought to how good and how efficient he is. Thinking always ahead, thinking always of trying to do more, brings a state of mind in which nothing is impossible.

[59:10] I refuse to recognize that there are impossibilities. I cannot discover that any one knows enough about anything on this earth definitely to say what is and what is not possible.

[59:30] Not a single operation is ever considered as being done in the best or cheapest way in our company.

[1:01:05] Continuous improvement makes your business likely to survive economic downturns.

[1:05:27] “The definition of business is problems." His philosophy came down to a simple fact of business life: success lies not in the elimination of problems but in the art of creative, profitable problem solving. The best companies are those that distinguish themselves by solving problems most effectively. — Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer. (Founders #20)

[1:06:38] The best companies are those that distinguish themselves by solving problems most effectively.

[1:06:53] That is the point that Henry Ford is making. You should thank your stars for the problem that you're having because once you solve it, you will now have better problem solving abilities. And therefore it's likely over time, that your company becomes more successful as a result of you being forced into this very difficult position to actually grow and acquire these new skills, because business is problems.

[1:08:45] Lucas unapologetically invested in what he believed in the most: himself. —George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones. (Founders #35)

[1:12:35] Henry Ford distilled down to five words: maximum service at minimum cost.

[1:18:52] Every advance begins in a small way and with the individual.

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