Henry Ford's Words on Black

The title of this site is inspired by the quote "Any customer can have a car painted in any colour he wants so long as it is black" by Henry Ford, the American founder of the Ford Motor Company.

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was the American founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. He was a prolific inventor and was awarded 161 U.S. patents. As owner of the Ford Company he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world.

He is credited with "Fordism", that is, the mass production of large numbers of inexpensive automobiles using the assembly line, coupled with high wages for his workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace.

The "... any colour so long as it is black" quote was a result of his quest for efficiency and low costs. Having just one colour on the production line made production much more efficient. There are rumours that the colour black was chosen because it dried faster, but this can not be verified.

Henry Ford is one of my all-time heroes. Not so much because he was only ever seen in black clothes and produced black cars, but because he revolutionised modern production methods and did it while having ethics, workers' conditions and the environment in mind. Here are some more Henry Ford Quotes to further illustrate his brilliant, and for the time, very modern mind.

"Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain."

"It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste."

"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking."

"The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life."

"There is one rule for industrialists and that is: make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible."

"Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs."

"Whether you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right."

"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me."

"We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we make today."

"I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible."

"There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something."

"Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service."

"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it."

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."

"The question 'Who ought to be boss?' is like as 'Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?' Obviously, the man who can sing tenor."

"You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together."

"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."

"I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night."

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."

"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business."

"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."

"Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty."

Henry Ford