What is your Model T?

How do you make a car that is affordable to the masses? That is the question and the challenge that Henry Ford was dealing with when he was designing the famed Model T. Up until that time, cars were luxury, more expensive than the average annual salary of a working man in the United States. Each car was custom built, and only affordable to the elite. Ford turned all that around in the early 1900’s with a new production system in a state of the art facility and a car designed for “everyone”.

Henry Ford did not invent the car, and he did not invent the assembly line, but he combined the two in one of the greatest innovations in US history. A true entrepreneur at heart, Henry Ford continually challenged the status quo in the automobile industry. Often going against the wishes and demands of investors, he pioneered the way cars were produced, and made them affordable to the every day working man. He had a vision, and worked hard to achieve it long before anyone else could see what he saw.

That is a key success factor that every entrepreneur needs to realize. Your ideas and vision might differ from everyone else around you. If it is not something that people are familiar with, they will be quick to doubt it. You have to have the courage and the determination to see your idea through all of that until it is complete. The Ford Motor Company increased car production more than 100% every year for the first 5 years until they owned nearly 50% of the US car market in the 1920’s. Henry Ford took his small car manufacturing plant and turned it into a powerful company and one of the “Big 3” automakers in the United States with vision and passion. What is your vision?