Henry Ford, one of America’s most important and most influential person, helped America in many ways. Some ways that Henry Ford helped America were by introducing techniques to other companies for making products in great quantities, he also helped to raise the nations economy by selling a great deal of automobiles, building new companies, and employing thousands of people. Henry Ford did not become successful overnight, he had to work hard and slowly move up to where he wanted to be. He started making $2.50 a week and increased to more than $1500 a week on the first year of his car sales. Though Ford had a great deal of money, he had some trouble keeping it. These were facts about Henry Fords influence and importance to America, but this was just the tip of the iceberg, it all started with a dream. Henry Ford had a dream of becoming someone famous with plenty of money, he knew farming was not going to get him there so he began to do what he thought would pay off.
He began dismantling engines and putting them back so he can get an idea of how they worked and how to fix them. Henry Fords dream was to make an automobile that was safe, reliable, sturdy on rough roads, and affordable to the average person.1 Henry Ford figured that companies and cities were being extended but people did not have a way to get to those places. That is when Ford started work as an apprentice at the James Flowers and Brothers Machine Shop. In this company, Ford would work with machines and parts of automobiles that is where Ford obtained most of his knowledge. To reach his goal, Ford had to get jobs that paid him well in order for him to build his first automobile. For that reason he obtained a job as a steam engine repairman in a company called the Detroit Dry Dock Company. This job paid him $2.50 a week but he had a job at night repairing clocks too because his rent was $3.50 a week.
Ford felt like he was getting a great deal of experience working as a machinist, but he knew that if he was ever going to have his own company he also needed to learn how to manage his money and how to become a successful businessman. That is why he decided to take business classes at a local college. Now that Ford was ready to start his own company, he just needed two things, a model of an actual car that was going to be reliable and affordable. He also needed money to start his company so he decided to work at Edison Illumination where he was paid $25 a week. With the extra money he was making, he could finally afford to start building his model car. In Fords spare time he began building his car.
The lack of focus on his actual job at Edison Illumination caused him to decide between his job or his cars. Ford chose the car.2 He knew that he was going to make it in the transportation business. Now that Ford had his first car he needed to promote it and what better way to promote a car than by racing it. Ford raced his cars in competitions and he would win, that is when people realized that Ford cars were faster and more reliable than the rest. These kind of promotions attracted investors and company owners to fund Ford projects. Now that he had a car model, money, and the future buyers hooked he was ready to start his own company.
He built a machinist workshop on his 40 acres of land, also with the money that other companies loaned him he was able to make the Henry Ford Company and the Ford Motor Company which initiated in 1903. The following year Ford sold 1700 automobiles at $800. That means that in one year he made $1,360,000 in revenue.3 That wasnt anything compared to the following years in which Ford in 1909 sold 18,000 cars, in 1910 sold 34,000 cars, in 1911 sold 78,000 cars, and in 1916 where Ford sold an impressive 730,000 automobiles. As the amount of production increased the prices of the vehicles decreased. At this rate about 60% of the cars in America were made by Ford.4 But people were tired of Fords so they started buying other brands. Slowly the Ford company started to decrease so Ford had to come up with a new idea. Thats where the Model A car appeared and people started to buy Fords again, Ford continued to sell cars from Model A to Model S vehicles. This strategy of making different styles of cars made Henry Ford in 1922 the richest man in the United States of America.
Henry Ford kept his money by coming up with new ideas and new models of cars to prevent people from getting tired of older models. He also invested and opened other companies to secure his money. Henry Ford was important because he inspired people to work for their dreams just like he did. He was also important because during World War II America needed bomber planes and weapons to be used in war and Ford made his car factory into an army plane factory to support the war. Ford was very important because without his companies the United States Army would have lacked in planes and that probably would have made the United States lose the war. Henry was important because he helped out the nation in many ways, one way he helped was by employing many people and building so many factories.
Henry Ford was important because he made transportation available not only to the high-class but also to the middle-class and some lower-class.5 Henry Ford was influential because he gave many ideas that companies still use today for example the assembly line for mass production. He also played a big role in the expansion of cars and he inspired other companies to make cars, this lead to a huge rise in the economy. He impacted everyone when he raised his companys minimum wages from $2.50 to $5.00.Tthat was unheard of back in early 1900s. That strategy attracted more people to work for him. Ford established the Ford Foundation which is one of the larges foundations in the world. This foundation has donated more than $8 billion dollars across the world, so he did not only give back to America but also he gave back to the world.
He also made schools, museums, and libraries. He is also influential because it started as a dream and it became a reality, now Ford is the second largest car maker in the world. Henry Ford, a man that worked hard and reached his goal. He not only gave back to America but he also gave back to the world. He was influential because of what he did with his money, he didnt just spend it on himself, he spent a large sum of it in foundations and schools. He also gave other companies ideas such as the assembly line. Ford managed to keep his money by creating new models every year and making a lot of automobiles and selling them for a small sum.
He was important because he helped the nation by making bomber planes and by promoting the usage of automobiles. Works Cited Business Leader Profiles for Students. vol.1. Gale Research, 1999. Cayton, Andrew. America: Pathways to the Present. Upper Saddle, NJ: Prentice Hall 2000. Lacey, Robert .Ford:The Men and the Machine. Camp Hill, PA: Brown Little.1986.
WWW.HFMGV.ORG. 05/27/2003. . Quote Page 1. Lacey, Robert .Ford:The Men and the Machine. Camp Hill, PA: Brown Little.1986.
(Page 10).
2. Lacey, Robert .Ford:The Men and the Machine. Camp Hill, PA: Brown Little.1986. (Page 22-23).
3.
WWW.HFMGV.ORG. 05/27/2003. . 4. Business Leader Profiles for Students. Vol.1. Gale Research, 1999.(Page 321-324) 5.
Cayton, Andrew. America: Pathways to the Present. Upper Saddle, NJ: Prentice Hall 2000. (Page 233).