My Life and Work by Henry Ford

Henry Ford is someone that I have admired for as long as I can remember. I was familiar with his quote, “You can have a car in whatever color you want as long as it’s black.” My grandfather also is a great fan of Ford and only drives Ford — nothing else. This was a book that I was very excited to get my hands on. Yet, maybe it was the publisher I chose but this book was incredibly dense. The print was ridiculous and words were from top to bottom… and there were no page numbers (I wrote them in by hand). Nonetheless, this was one of my favorite and most impactful books. Nearly 100 years later and everything within this book can be applied today, I loved it.

The beginning of the book revealed some of the processes that Henry Ford undertook when thinking about if things could be improved from their current state. I think that this is a great way to begin. What is the current state? What could be done better? What could be more efficient? Etc. It showed me so much right away about the mind that Henry Ford had.

Pg. 9, First we ought to find whether it is as well made as it should be — does it give the best possible service? Then — are the materials the best or merely the most expensive? Then — can its complexity and weight be cut down? And so on.

This made me pause after reading as it started to make complete sense. If someone is so well-versed…