One Idea

1863 - 1947

He worked on the farm throughout his youth although he showed very little interest in tilling the soil. Henry’s real interest was that of working with mechanical things.

At sixteen, Ford left the farm and headed to nearby Detroit. He landed a job as an apprentice machinist, which he held for the next three years. After that, he held a series of jobs repairing steam engines, farm equipment, did a little farm work and later ran a sawmill.

With engineering in his blood, Henry went to work for Thomas Edison’s Illuminating Company at age twenty-eight. Within two years he was promoted to chief engineer and worked there for eight years. With the money he earned as an engineer, he devoted his personal time and energy towards experiments with the internal combustion engine. In 1896, Ford built the Quadricycle, a four-wheel self-propelled vehicle with a gasoline engine.

Ford suffered two unsuccessful attempts to build his dream with the Detroit Automobile Company and the Henry Ford Company. Then, in 1903, along with other investors including coal merchant Alexander Malcomson, Ford and his team contributed $100,000 and incorporated as Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford became chief engineer and vice president and later bought out his partners.

In 1908, Ford realized his ambitious dream of building an automobile for Americans that was reasonably priced, efficient, and reliable with the introduction of the Model T. To meet the increasing demand, Ford moved to a larger factory in Highland Park, Michigan. It was here that Ford put to work his innovative, assembly line, bringing the automobile to the worker, thus saving tremendous time and resources. Within the span of ten years, half the cars sold in America were Model T’s.

Soon, Ford developed the world’s largest industrial complex in Dearborn, Michigan. It integrated everything he needed to produce automobiles including a steel mill, glass factory, automobile assembly line, mills, forges and assembly shops. At its peak, the Rouge Plant had 81,000 employees on the payroll, had nearly seven million square feet of floor space, and was built with the then unbelievable investment of over $268 million.

Ford’s ambitious idea of mass production was now in place. The increased volume of Model T’s made Ford the largest automobile manufacturer in the world at that time.

Ford later became a philanthropist by starting the Ford Foundation, which is now America’s largest foundation with assets of over $6.6 billion.

Ford held strong in the early years to his idea of mass producing the Model T. By holding on to his dream and by never giving in despite early failures, The Ford Motor Company has become an American institution employing over 338,000 people throughout the world with annual sales of over $137 billion.

By the persistence of one great idea, Ford’s affordable automobile transformed America into the industrial era. The power of one idea can definitely change the world.