My Life and Work
Henry Ford · 1922
4.8 · 5 ratings
About the book
Ford explains the assembly line, the five-dollar day and the Model T from inside the head that decided them — opinionated, cranky, and astonishingly frank about what a business is for. A founder's book from before anyone used the word.
Try the short course
Part 1 · Start with what the thing is for. The first six slides, free.
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Ford opens his book with a claim that sounds odd coming from a man his cars had made enormously rich. Power and machinery, money and goods, "are useful only as they set us free to live." They are means to an end, and he asks to be judged by that end.
He is blunt about his own position. If all he wanted was money, the system of 1922 suited him perfectly; it was paying him in plenty. He objects to it anyway, because it encourages every kind of waste.
So the cars are not the point. He calls them concrete evidence of a theory of business, and the company's huge success matters to him only as proof that the theory works. Read everything that follows that way: not a story of getting rich, but a method with its evidence attached.
Inside the course
16 parts- «What is the idea?» — Ford's opening questionFree above
- The farm boy and the watch: the beginning
- What he learned about business before starting one
- Starting the real business, twice
Questions
Is My Life and Work free to read in Astra Trainer?
Yes. The full book opens free in the app’s reader, in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian.
What is the short course?
16 short parts that walk through the book’s key ideas in slides, each with a quick quiz. The first six slides are free to try on this page.
Where do I get the app?
Astra Trainer is free on the App Store and Google Play. My Life and Work is waiting in the app’s library.
