American
Businessman
(July 30,
1863 -
April 7,
1947)
"All Fords are exactly alike, but no two men are just alike. Every new life is a new thing under the sun; there has never been anything just like it before, never will be again. A young man ought to get that idea about himself; he should look for the single spark of individuality that makes him different from other folks, and develop that for all he is worth. Society and schools may try to iron it out of him; their tendency is to put it all in the same mold, but I say don't let that spark be lost; it is your only real claim to importance."
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young."
"Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success."
"A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large."
"Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets."
"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business."
"Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice."
"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."
"The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time."
"Don't find fault, find a remedy."
"Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement."
"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."
"The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life."
"I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done."
"If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability."
"If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own."
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right."
"It is not the employer who pays wages - he only handles the money. It is the product that pays wages."
"Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward."
"The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed."
"Money doesn't change men, it merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish or arrogant or greedy, the money brings that out, that's all."
"Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them."
"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me."
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."
"The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability."
"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking."
"There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something."
"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it."
"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it."
"Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right."
"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."
