Happy Birthday Henry Ford

Whenever anyone suggests that I change something in my Ford to "improve" it I think of Henry and the genius of his mechanical creativity and end up very hesitant to divert from his tried and proven designs.

1865 Age 2 1/2:

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1888 at age 25:

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His first car, the Quadracycle, in 1896 at age 33:

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1st Ford racer in 1901. Henry Ford, age 38, and Spider Huff:

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1904 at age 41:

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In 1919 at age 56:

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Model T in 1921 age 58:

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Twixt his 10 millionth model T and his first Quadracycle in 1924 age 61:

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With Lindberg in 1927 age 64:

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With our beloved flathead engine in 1932 age 69:

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Hitting 1941 Ford car trunk lid made of soybean plastic at age 78:

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Oldest picture I could find. Age unknown.

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Selected Quotes of Henry Ford:
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  1. An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.
  2. -
  3. A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.
  4. -
  5. As long as we look to legislation to cure poverty or to abolish special privilege we are going to see poverty spread and special privilege grow.
  6. -
  7. Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.
  8. -
  9. A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.
  10. -
  11. Whether you think you can, or you think you can't -- you're right.
  12. -
  13. I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done.
  14. -
  15. Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
  16. -
  17. Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
  18. -
  19. The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one's destiny to do, and then do it.
  20. -
  21. You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together.
  22. -
  23. Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.
  24. -
  25. Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
  26. -
  27. Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.
  28. -
  29. Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.
  30. -
  31. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
  32. -
  33. Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.
  34. -
  35. You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
  36. -
  37. I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one — and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces.
  38. -
  39. I don’t know whether Napoleon did or did not try to get across there and I don’t care. I don’t know much about history, and I wouldn’t give a nickel for all the history in the world. It means nothing to me. History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's @#!*% is the history we make today.
  40. -
  41. What we need is some financial engineers.
  42. -
  43. The average man won't really do a day's work unless he is caught and cannot get out of it. There is plenty of work to do if people would do it. (On reasons for the Great Depression)
  44. -
  45. Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice.
  46. -
  47. If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.
  48. -
  49. I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn't need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about.
  50. -
  51. If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.
  52. -
  53. One of the greatest discoveries a person makes, one of their great surprises, is to find they can do what they were afraid they couldn't do.
  54. -
  55. Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.
  56. -
  57. If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get to other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own.
  58. -
  59. You say I started out with practically nothing, but that isn't correct. We all start with all there is, it's how we use it that makes things possible.
  60. -
  61. It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.
  62. -
  63. -
As you can tell, I highly revere the man.

Here's a nice little 8 minute video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysARJIJg0W4
 
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I remember when he died in the 40s, FMC sent a large size portrait of him (the age 56 one) to all the dealerships that had sent condolences. Dad's dealership got one and hung it in the main office.
 
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