“Work is futile if we cannot utilize the experience we collect in one life in the next,” said Ford.
A staunch believer in the value of hard work, Ford understood a useful life as one being dedicated to work that had meaning outside of itself. Ford based his career not only on the provision of a superior quality product but also on the premise that he was improving the lives of others. Never one to chase after the fortune, Ford believed that a useful life would be duly rewarded in time.
“Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly,” said Ford. “It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.” Ford attributes his success to the ability of the automobile to enhance the lives of his customers. If Ford Motor Co. had only made money and not contributed to the overall well being of society, Ford would have instantly given up and pursued another more meaningful endeavour. After all, “a business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”
Once Ford began to see success, he chose not to retire with his fortune, but to continue to reinvest his substantial earnings into further product improvements and expansion. This was because Ford believed that “the highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life.” Thus, the main reason the Ford Model T was such a success was because it allowed customers the chance at a better life.
Never underestimating the power of thought, Ford argued that “the way is clear for any one who thinks first of service – of doing the work in the best possible way.” An entrepreneur who chases wealth as opposed to wanting to truly enhance the lives of his customers has, according to Ford, far less chance of succeeding. “That thinking first of money instead of work brings on fear of failure and this fear blocks every avenue of business,” said Ford. “It makes a man afraid of competition, of changing his methods, or of dong anything which might change his condition.”
Because of his dedication to his work, Ford seemed to always be unpopular in the business world. He could never understand how so little attention was typically paid to service, whereas most of the action was centered on finding financing. “That seemed to be to be reversing the natural process which is that the money should come as the result of work and not before the work,” he said.
In Ford’s eyes, the entrepreneur had a role far greater than simply generating his own wealth. Instead, he believed that the entrepreneur’s prosperity had to be thought of in terms of “the degree of the comfort of the people at large – not the size of the manufacturer’s bank balance.” Thus, the businessman’s place in society was to contribute to this comfort. Calling entrepreneurs “instruments of society,” Ford claimed that, “in this way and in this way alone can a manufacturer or any one in business justify his existence.”
Believing that “idleness warps the mind,” Ford achieved his success by turning his attention first and foremost to the welfare of society. It was this philosophy that also inspired him to create the Ford Foundation in 1936, which continues to dedicate itself to the promotion of democracy and peace worldwide.
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