Henry Ford's Own Story: How A Farmer Boy Rose To The Power That Goes With Many Millions, Yet Never Lost Touch With Humanity (1917) by Rose Wilder Lane

Henry Ford's Own Story: How A Farmer Boy Rose To The Power That Goes With Many Millions, Yet Never Lost Touch With Humanity (1917) Reviews

• 
  Samuel

  Fun, easy, and enjoyable quick read from the prospective of Henry Ford during the start of his company and the little challenges he faced. Of course, nothing goes into depth, this is just a shorten version of the start of his company.
• 
  Sheryl Sato

  Favourite quotes from this book:
  
  Probably the disposition to rest on our laurels is more than anything else responsible for mediocrity of the individual and the slow progress of the race. Having accomplished something, most of us spend some time in admiring it and ourselves. It is characteristic of big men that past achievements do not hold their interest; they are concerned only with their efforts to accomplish still more in the future. (Author)
  
  "The only trouble is that people make a distinction between practical things and spiritual qualities. I tell you, loyalty, and friendliness, and helping the other man along are the only really valuable things in this world, and they bring all the 'practical' advantages along with them every time. If every one of us had the courage to believe that, and act on it, war and waste and misery of all kinds would be wiped out over night." (Henry Ford)
  
  "Poverty doesn't hold a man down...Money doesn't amount to anything...Any man who has a good idea and works hard enough will succeed...an idea that will work out for the best interests of every one - an idea for something that will benefit the world. That's the kind of an idea the world wants." (Henry Ford)
  
  
• 
  Lokesh

  Audiobook via librivox.org
  ---
  Simple and crisp to the point.
  
  Helps a reader to understand and know more about Henry Ford.
  
  Henry Ford journey - born and brought in farm - how he developed interest in machine by opening a watch - quitting school at the age of 16 - moving to Detroit to learn and work for factory making steam engine - his personal life story revolving around family, his love(wife) and his passion(machines) - taking a decision to move to Detroit to construct a car using gasoline - his daily struggle and how he was able to focus on his passion - hard work - commitment - his challenges to get capital - his struggle with automobile industry and seldom patent lawsuit - giving the world a car which is in reach of common man - his values to make life of everyone around him better.
  
  Audiobook was divided in 30 chapter each of around 10 mins.
  
  Highly recommended audiobook.
  
• 
  Wpilart

  Compared to current biographies, this narrative seems reserved and minimizes significant aspects of Ford's life. For example, the author doesn't record the name or date of birth of Ford's first child. Additionally absent is any mention of Ford's infamous antiSemitism. I won't rate the book until I've finished reading.
  Finished -- This biography lionized Ford and was incredibly one-sided. Perhaps it's not that different from current autobiographies or memoirs that seem to pop up every minute and insist that the author is above humanity.
• 
  Ashley Bacon

  Audiobkok with the kids. We love Henry Ford because of the museum and the village so this was a fun and interesting listen for us!
• 
  John

  Interesting account of how Henry Ford started, established his business, created his ideas of how to conduct a business, and became a legend. The book ends as WWI is raging in Europe and before the US is involved. Ford believed that he should always follow the course of action resulting in the most good for the most number of people. Lowering his prices year after year allowed more people to purchase cars and enjoy their benefits.
• 
  Madis Merila

  This story talks how Henry Ford went from farmer to biggest car manufacturer in the world. He was the ultimate bootstrapper and startuper. Building his solution in the shed for years. Building and organizing his own factory, hiring the people and setting up the culture "I've got your back", "greatest good for th greatest number of people". Passed the cost savings down to customers.
  
  His personal life suffered, because he worked most of his working hours on his project. This I can relate.
• 
  Tanja Trobok

  This book inspired me to see enetprenurship in different eyes. Henry Ford is remarkable and bit a controversial man that created the world he didn't enjoy in the end. But the strength needed for change and devotion to one's idea, agile approach and focus on things that matter, made this book pop out as a great read for me recently.
• 
  Ivan Borov

  Look back and you can see what happened in the past and what will happen in the future. Many parallels I find between industrial revolution of that time and the industrial revolution of our time.
• 
  Joan

  What a great man Henry Ford was. If the world had his philosophy earth would be heaven.
• 
  Cindy DeLong

  I love biographies/autobiographies and this one didn't disappoint.
• 
  Tao Lee

  Has worked more than 14 hours a day. Randy has worked for 16 hours, did it last night! Was good friends with Edison. He made good friends. Useful and cheap is a good starting point for consumers to try out your new product. He worked at the Edison plant to improve his machine. Punish yourself for being lazy and do not reward bad behaviors. If you reward yourself for bad behaviors, your brain will link bad behaviors to good feelings = more bad habits. 12 hours at the Edison plant, go back home for supper, said hi to his wife and worked more in his shed before going to bed. Ford did not eat much, and found it helped him think better - he ate when he was very hungry. Died at 83 years old. Ford did not discriminate when choosing his workers. Men work better when they have something great to look forward to. This is why you always want to start far away from your desired spot if you want to create a pleasant workout plan. Walk to the waterfall, and yes, you can park further away than others - workout tip. Ford paid his workers much more than everyone else, therefore, all of the best men wanted to work there. You will not keep your workers happy if you do not pay them enough. The more a person help other people, the more that person will get in many spectrum. If you want to step over people you will lose other's trust and create enemies. The only time to annihilate the other party is when they are not playing nice and is going out to hurt your business. You should make everyone a part of your machine. There is work for all man. People called him an idiot to hire all types of men to work in his factory. 100k more cars and 20% increase in sales was a result of hiring all sorts of men. You however, must micromanage the questionable characters. Ford wanted everyone to own a ford, when his family were at optimal wealth, as a gift to America, he lowered the price of all of his vehicle. Go after you want with all your might and keep going ahead. "One idea builds a huge organization." NEVER LOSE TOUCH WITH HUMANITY
• 
  Benjamin

  I listened to the Librivox version. It was the only Rose Wilder Lane book on Librivox. Lane writes of the life of Henry Ford, seemingly from interviews she has conducted with him. It talks about him being ambitious but initially not taking advantage of certain opportunities, always going back to his family's farm, like initially wanting to start a watch factory. Lane claims at one point that him falling in love inevitably kept him from perusing his dreams, while that may have been the case for him, it is not a universal truth as to some it could have the opposite effect. He eventually finds himself with a new opportunity, he wants to make a more efficient gas engine. While he is a partner in a company, he does not like the way they run things so quite and eventually starts his own.
  According to Lane, his goal was never to be rich and in fact he preferred not to have more money than he knew what to do with, so his portrayal by some as an greedy Scrooge is not accurate. His goal, according to Lane was to "prove the most good for the most people".
• 
  BuenoBomb aka Andre Bueno

  I really liked this book! The author provided a great backstory to how Henry Ford built his company as well as his intrinsic motivation when dealing with employees, shareholders, and society as a whole.
• 
  Mohsen Gabr

  audio book
• 
  Carol Spears

  The tale Henry Ford tells of his life is not the worst autobiography I have read.
• 
  David Anusontarangkul

  Interesting biography about Henry Ford. He was a workaholic and a problem solver. He had a strong mission of doing the greatest good to the most amount of people, which helped his business prevail.