I boken Dynasties av David S. Landes beskrivs Henry Ford som en av de största innovatörer och industriella entreprenörer som funnits i historien. I samma bok nämns också att hans rykte dock delvis nedsvärtats på grund av att han med tiden blev allt mer envis och autokratisk, både gällande affärer och politiska åsikter. Det är dock få som på samma sätt revolutionerat verkstadsindustrin som då han införde löpandebandprincipen i sitt företag Ford Motor Company. Ett företag som även gjorde honom till en av de mest förmögna genom historien med en uppskattad förmögenhet på 199 miljarder dollar.
Nedan har vi gjort en sammanställning över några favoriter bland Henry Fords citat. På basen av dessa inser man rätt enkelt att han var en man med mycket visdom gällande de enkla samband som avgör hur väl vi kommer att lyckas med våra målsättningar här i livet.
- Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.
- Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
- When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
- My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.
- Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.
- You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.
- Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.
- The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.
- Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.
- You can’t learn in school what the world is going to do next year.
- The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.
- 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.
- We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s dam is the history we make today.
- Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.
- Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.
- 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.
- Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
- Don’t find fault, find a remedy.
- It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
- It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.
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