Henry Ford is a famous entrepreneur known for many things including his innovative assembly line technique, right? He also popularized the use of cheap mass-produced automobiles. However, did you know that before he became a car manufacturer, Mr. Ford was an American industrialist who worked for Thomas Edison?

Mr. Ford’s first positions were in Edison’s company where he had to work on powering streetcars with electricity. There is one story about him working at Edison Labs that has been making rounds along with the internet recently. It goes like this:

One day Henry Ford took some parts home with him after work to tinker with and try and improve upon them. When he showed up at the lab the next day Edison noticed that something was different about him and asked what it was. Ford replied that he had made himself some new parts to replace the broken ones. Edison then asked him to bring them along with him on his next shift so they could be tested.

Ford agreed and went back to work rebuilding the machine they were working on, meanwhile, Edison called all of Ford’s previous co-workers into a meeting where he announced “I have fired Henry for dishonesty” explaining how he thought Henry had stolen parts from their workplace. It was only after all of Ford’s former colleagues quit in solidarity with him that Mr. Edison discovered what really happened. Innovation is more often employed by those who are doing less glamorous jobs in an organization.

Henry Ford’s Early life

Henry was born on July 30, 1863, in Greenfield Township, Michigan. His full name was Henry Ford and he was nicknamed “Harry”. He was born to William Ford and Mary Litogot who were farmers living in the Red River Valley of southwestern Manitoba, Canada. There Ford spent most of his childhood until age 10 when he moved into the United States with his parents and siblings. He grew up in Dearborn where the small family made their living by farming and cultivating trees for lumber.

Ford’s Family: 

His father usually took odd jobs when the work on the farm wasn’t enough to make ends meet for a growing family which included six children – three boys named Edsel, John, and Horace; along with two girls – Clara and Jane. It was unusual for families to have as many children at the time and Ford’s family experienced a lot of financial struggles. When he turned 16, he got his first job working as an apprentice machinist at Westinghouse factory where his brother Edsel was already employed as a pattern maker.

Ford’s Education:

As soon as he could drive (age 14), Henry started attending school winters in order to complete his education. When he turned 18, he enrolled in an elementary course on bookkeeping and higher mathematics at the University School which was located close to where they lived; but only stayed there briefly before quitting because it interfered with his schedule and work hours. He didn’t go back to high school until much later when he had more time.

Ford’s Early Career:

In 1879, Mr. Ford was hired on as a machinist at the Michigan Sugar Company where he earned $2.50 a day for 12 hours of work each day, six days a week. It was a tough job where Henry often worked long hours and had to deal with some very hot temperatures due to the steam engines in the plant.

He became increasingly frustrated with his job because it didn’t offer him enough time or money to go back and get an education which was something he really wanted by that point in his life! In fact, only one month into working there did Henry quit after being offered additional work from Thomas Edison’s company that paid more.

Some people have speculated that Mr. Ford was inspired by Edison and that he quit his job at the factory because he wanted to work for him. Either way, Edson was happy to take Henry on as a machinist and he started working there right away.

Henry Ford’s Work With Thomas Edison: 

Although Edison is famous for inventing the commercial electric light bulb, phonograph, and motion picture camera; not many people know about the many other things Mr. Edison worked on over the years such as directory assistance (the first phone book ever issued contained only 50 names), an iron ore sorter, a paper bag machine, and even power tools.

After starting out as a mechanic, Henry quickly rose through the ranks of workers at his company and became known for fixing anything that that was broken around the place.

Ford the entrepreneur:

Eventually, Edison was so impressed with Henry’s work and skills that he made him head engineer at a raise in pay to $5 a day. That year, Ford invented his first machine called simply “the engine”. It was designed to cut metal and it used a piece of wood as the cutting edge instead of a steel blade.

The reason why this is significant is that Wood didn’t wear down from being repeatedly sharpened like other metals did all the time! As you can imagine, this created quite a stir around town, and news about it spread quickly. He would later sell the rights for this invention for $40,000 which provided him with enough money to start his own company making more machines! 

Henry Ford’s Career After Working

Ford’s first company was called the Detroit Automobile Company and he only stayed there for a short time. It was financially unstable because it required too much capital to survive which wasn’t something Ford had access to at the time so he left quite quickly after starting. He spent $2,900 to buy part ownership in one of his friends’ machines but that was still not enough to keep the company afloat which eventually led to its collapse. After that point, Henry became pretty discouraged about business investments and decided that his next venture would be doing things by himself without any partners involved.

The birth of the Ford Motor Company:

By this point in his life, Ford had saved up quite a bit of money through his various investments and business ventures. Knowing that the automobile industry was starting to boom, he decided it would be a good idea to try his hand at that as well. He acquired all of the necessary parts for making cars on credit which is how he managed to start manufacturing them! Henry Ford’s first successful product was called the “Quadricycle”. It was so successful actually, that he managed to sell it before it even had its final paint job.

After the success of his first car came another new invention called the Model T which became arguably one of the most important vehicles ever manufactured by any company ever. Over the course of the next few years, Ford cars became popular all over America and kept on selling like hotcakes. He would eventually move his entire factory to an enormous piece of land in Dearborn Michigan which was much bigger than what he needed at the time but it turned out to be a great decision.

Henry Ford The Person:

It turns out that Henry Ford was not just a brilliant businessman who had access to unlimited sources of capital because he knew how to manage them well. He also possessed many other talents you may have never known about before! For example, Mr. Ford loved animals so much that he built a massive estate called Greenfield Village that contained buildings from all around America.

It was a reconstruction of what life would be like before the 20th century and contained farmhouses from the east coast, log cabins from the mid-west, mills from New England, etc. In addition to that, he loved growing plants as well so he built a gigantic greenhouse on his property which was twice as long as a football field. After being inspired by Asian art, Ford built a Japanese garden outside of his home with a Koi pond and even went as far as to design some of its waterfalls himself.

When it came to driving, Henry Ford drove more than anyone else in American history- He liked driving so much that he had over 1 million miles under his belt by 1915 before any other person could beat him. Henry passed away in 1987.

As a fun fact, if Henry was loved, his net worth today would be USD 200 Billion taking into consideration inflation and all other factors.

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