Not many people can claim to be as wildly successful as Henry Ford, but the simple principles he employed to attain his personal fortune provide insights for anyone wishing to improve their financial situation. Henry Ford didn't start out trying to make mountains of money. He rarely mentioned money during his childhood and early adulthood. Rather, his attention was directed at pursuing his deep interest in building machinery.
This desire to spend his time building machinery turned into a passion for building cars. He followed his passion and increasing levels of income eventually would follow him. He gave up a good corporate job to pursue this dream, with no guarantee of financial gain. However, by disregarding the discouraging comments he received, maintaining a conservative view of managing money and debt, and leaving the "security" of his corporate job, Henry Ford turned a passion into income, which then gave him the freedom to live the life of his dreams. Here are five financial lessons we can learn from his journey as hobbyist to industrialist.
1. Henry Ford developed the skills that allowed him to live his passion.
Henry Ford was fascinated with machinery from the time he was a young boy. Even though his enthusiasm for tinkering with metal and tools was discouraged by his farmer father, and later on his employers, as he became a young adult he continued to pursue those interests.
Ford followed his own calling and continuously taught himself to build tools and machines. He spent all of his free time working on his interests. This allowed him to hone his mechanical skills to such a fine point that his technical ability could be used in creation of a new horseless carriage. From very modest beginnings he constructed his first car on his own in his garage after work. That car led to millions upon millions more sold over the next 100 years. Even though he was highly criticized and discouraged, except for Thomas Edison on one early occasion, his passion had turned an idea into a valuable reality that provided him the means to live his dream and pursue his interests.
2. Henry Ford quit his day job.
Henry Ford noted in his own biography My Life and Work that his childhood was average from a financial perspective. The family didn't face seriously tough times, but they weren't incredibly successful either. As a child he worked on his parent's farm, received basic education in a one room school house where he was assigned to the back row of desks, and would visit town with his father in a horse drawn wagon.
As a young adult he worked for Edison and was paid $45.00 per month. Years later, as an engineer, he was making $125.00 a month. He must have been considered a valuable asset to the company he worked for because they offered him a higher paying job if only he would quit talking about pursuing his dreams of building cars. He quit his job that very day.
3. Henry Ford never stopped studying and learning.
One trait of successful people in any arena is their devotion to constant learning. Henry Ford stated many times that the long hours put in practicing and studying ways to improve your abilities never seems like work when you are excited by it. In his mid-20s Ford was still working for someone else, but he found many ways to get better with machinery and tools in his "off the clock" time. He took a part time job with a jeweler, and using the skill of watch repair that he had taught himself, he became much better with mechanical parts by repairing hundreds of watches. Another example was his garage workshop. Late into the night he would work in the shop and construct engines and mock cars with the spare parts and scrap he had collected.
Some people look at learning and studying from the same bored perspective of a fourth grade student sitting by the window in class on a beautiful spring day. Rather than thinking of learning as a chore or a hindrance to fun, successful people look at the exercises of honing the skills they are passionate about as interesting and exciting work. Their passion may not be the thing that currently allows them to earn income. However, developing the skills that not only excite you, but can be turned into a living that supports you, is a good marker of future success.
His work ethic brought him consistent success that led to even bigger rewards.
You can read more about this story and Henry Ford's personal traits with money at BowmansMoneyCollege.com.
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