Thrive: 30 Inspirational Rags-to-Riches Stories

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was born and raised on a farm in Greenfield Township, Michigan. From an early age, Henry was fascinated with machinery. He saw his first automobile, a self-powered steam engine, at twelve years old with his father on their way to Detroit, Michigan, just a few months after his mother passed away during childbirth. Henry immediately saw the potential of what a "horseless carriage" could have on people's lives, especially farmers. By age thirteen, he was disassembling and reassembling timepieces, and often fixed the timepieces of friends and neighbors.

Henry's father expected him to eventually take over the family farm, but Henry despised farm work. He wanted to pursue a career in machinery. At age sixteen, Henry left the family farm for Detroit and found work as a machinist, where he operated and serviced steam engines. He eventually abandoned the idea of a steam-powered automobile, after deeming it too dangerous, and searched for an alternative. He also studied bookkeeping and worked nights at a local jewelry store repairing watches. After three years, Henry returned to the family farm, while working occasional stints at Detroit factories. He married Clara Bryant, who had grown up on a nearby farm. In the first several years of their marriage, Henry supported his new family by running a sawmill.

Henry eventually returned to Detroit with his wife and found work at Thomas Edison's Edison Illuminating Company, where he was promoted to chief engineer within two years. On call twenty-four hours a day, Henry spent irregular hours working on his side efforts to build a gasoline-powered horseless carriage, which he completed in 1896 and named the Ford Quadricycle. That year, Henry also attended a meeting with executives and was introduced to Thomas Edison. Encouraged by Edison, Henry designed and built a second vehicle, which he completed in 1898. Backed by the capital of Detroit lumber baron William H. Murphy, Henry resigned from the Edison Illuminating Company and founded the Detroit Automobile Company. However, the automobiles produced were of a lower quality and higher price than Henry wanted. After many disagreements with his business partners, Henry left the company, which was renamed the Cadillac Motor Car Company.

A year later, Henry formed the Ford Motor Company with $28,000 in capital. He released a new car every few months, beginning with the Model A and making his way through the alphabet. The Model T was introduced in October 1908 and became a tremendous success. The car was simple to drive and cheap to repair. The price of the car dropped over the years, and people who had never thought they would own a car before, including farmers, were now driving Henry's invention. By 1918, half of all cars driven in the United States were Model Ts. At forty-five years old, Henry's dream had finally come true.