Month: November 2020

In this biography of Bruce Lee, find out everything about Bruce Lee – His ethnicity, his reason for going to the USA, his controversial match with Wong Jack Man, and finally, how he became famous. 

When he participated in the International Karate Championships in Long Beach in 1964, Bruce Lee did not think it would change his life. But the championship gave him a chance to meet William Dozier, who introduced Bruce Lee to the American audience. In the next few years, Bruce Lee would go on to star in several films, thanks to the television series produced by William Dozier. Simultaneously, he would train his body rigorously and develop his own martial arts style. His martial arts would soon become hugely popular and immortalize him as a legendary martial artist. 

How did passion and perseverance make an ordinary man such as Bruce Lee immortal? Read this biography of Bruce Lee to find out. 

Early life

Ancestors

Mozes Hartog Bosman, Bruce Lee’s great grandfather, was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1839. Bosman’s father was a Jewish butcher. But Bosman did not want to become a butcher like his father since he loved adventure. Therefore, he joined the Dutch East India Company when he was a teenager and traveled to Hong Kong. 

In Hong Kong, Bosman slowly rose up the ranks, eventually becoming Netherland’s Ambassador to Hong Kong in 1866. Thus, in his early life, Bosman was extremely successful. But in the latter part of his life, he went bankrupt while trying to make money by exploiting Chinese workers. So, he married the daughter of a wealthy man and moved to England. 

When he was in Hong Kong, Bosman had a Chinese concubine, with whom he had six children. His children would later grow up and become some of the wealthiest people in Hong Kong. Too bad Bosman didn’t stay in Hong Kong to witness that.

Ho Kom-tong

Among all his children, the one who looked the most Chinese was his son Ho Kom-tong. This gave rise to rumors that Ho Kom-tong was not born to Bosman, but to another Chinese man with whom Bosman’s wife had an affair. However, these rumors have not been proved. Moreover, children born to parents from two different races tend to look completely different from one another. So, we have to assume that Bosman is indeed the biological father of Ho Kom-tong. 

Ho Kom-tong himself fathered many children. After all, Ho Kom-tong had 13 concubines and a British mistress, despite having a wife. His 30th child was a girl named Grace Ho, who was born to his English mistress. 

Ho Kom Tong (Seated right), with his brothers – By Unknown author – Eric Hotung, Public Domain, Link

Parents

When she was 18 years old, Grace Ho fell in love with Lee Hoi Chuen, a Chinese opera singer and film actor in Hong Kong. So, she eloped with him, much to the dismay of her family. Grace and Lee had five children and, their first child, a girl, was adopted. Since Lee was an actor, he did several gigs in the USA. So, he traveled to the USA with his wife. 

Birth

On November 27th, 1940, during one such travel, their fourth child was born in San Fransisco. This is the child that would later revolutionize the world by the name of Bruce Lee. Ironically, the name Bruce was not given to him by his parents or his relatives. It was given by a nurse in the hospital where he was born. His parents named him Jun Fan. 

Bruce Lee with his parents, 1940 – By Unknown author – 搜房网电影人生, Public Domain, Link

Experiencing Racial discrimination

Jun Fan was born in the USA and has had US citizenship since birth. But he looked Chinese. Ironically, he was not completely Chinese either, since his great maternal grandfather was a Dutch Jew. Due to this mixed ethnicity, he would become a victim of racial discrimination throughout his life, both in China and the USA. 

Childhood

Jun Fan came from an affluent family. His father was an Opera star, an actor, and also made money by renting out properties. Jun Fan himself had acted in a few films. His first film was the Golden Gate Girl, in which the two-month-old Jun Fan appeared as a newborn girl. His next film was at the age of six when he started doing supporting roles as a child actor. Bruce Lee’s first lead role was at the age of nine for a movie called ‘The Kid.’ By the time he was 18, he had already acted in 20 films, none of which were Kung Fu flicks.

Bruce Lee in ‘The Kid’ – By Elephantine Film Co. – Historical photo of Hong Kong, Public Domain, Link

Joining a street gang

But all the fame and money did not save Jun Fan from being bullied. At that time, Hong Kong was an island ruled by the British. Its streets were filled with refugees who fled communist China. Even though these refugees came to Hong Kong to lead respectable lives, some of them joined gangs that carried out organized crimes. So, due to their presence, the streets of Hong Kong became unsafe.

Jun Fan himself was often bullied by the English boys in the neighborhood. Therefore, when he was 12 years old, Jun Fan joined a street gang called the ‘Junction Street Eight Tigers’ to protect himself from bullying. He and his gang often carried chains and pens with knives hidden in them. Yet, Jun Fan preferred to use fists rather than weapons, just to show his gang that he was better than them. 

Jun Fan become Bruce Lee

Since Jun Fan was from an affluent family, he joined high school at La Salle College, a prestigious Roman Catholic school. Since the medium of teaching was English, Jun Fan started using his English name, Bruce. Thus, when he was 12 years old, Lee Jun Fan became Bruce Lee. 

Initially, when he joined the gang, Bruce Lee only wanted to protect himself from being bullied. But soon, he became a punk who went around looking for fights. His gang would often pick fights with British schoolboys in Hong Kong, who, according to them, were overly privileged. 

Learning Wing Chun

Desire to learn martial arts

Even though his gang was always there to protect him, at times, Bruce Lee wondered what would happen to him if he got into a fight when his gang was not around. As fate would have it, he found the answer to that question soon enough. Just before he turned 13 years old, Bruce Lee got into a fight with an older student. This student, who knew martial arts, beat Bruce Lee thoroughly, making him feel helpless.

After the fight, Bruce Lee, who didn’t want to feel so helpless again, decided to learn martial arts. So, one of his gang members introduced him to Yip Man, the master of the Wing Chun style Kung fu. 

Yip Man

Yip Man only taught advanced students personally, not beginners. So, initially, Bruce Lee was taught by Wong Shun-Leung at Yip Man’s martial arts school. The Chinese normally don’t teach their martial arts techniques to non-Asians. So, a year after Bruce Lee started training at the school, his fellow students refused to train with him because of his mixed ethnicity. But Bruce Lee showed keen interest in learning Wing Chun. So, Yip Man himself started training Bruce Lee personally. 

Bruce Lee and Yip Man – Picture credits

Wing Chun is a form of martial arts that focuses on speed and accuracy instead of strength. Bruce Lee learned Wing Chun for a total of five years and became very proficient in it. But Wing Chun is not the only thing Yip Man taught Bruce Lee. He also taught him the concepts of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. While Buddhism emphasizes leading a simple life, Taoism emphasizes living in harmony with nature. Confucianism, on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of morals and personal values.

Winning boxing and dancing championships

Due to the training from Yip Man, Bruce Lee’s martial arts skills improved tremendously. As a result, in 1958, Bruce Lee won the Hong Kong schools boxing tournament. But that’s not the only championship he won that year. He also won Hong Kong’s Crown Colony Cha-Cha Championship the same year. Cha-Cha is a Cuban dance that is practiced internationally. Thus, by the time he turned 18, Bruce Lee was a meticulous martial artist, an excellent dancer, and an accomplished actor. 

Bruce Lee’s aggression changes his life

Even though Bruce Lee was becoming a talented young man, his aggression was getting out of control. Despite Yip Man’s teachings of harmony and self-control, the teenage Bruce Lee’s aggression and love for fighting had not decreased. Moreover, his academic performance was getting worse too. So, he was transferred from La Salle College, a reputed private school, to a strict school. But even that did not stop him from being aggressive. On the contrary, his street fights became even more frequent. In one such fight in 1959, Bruce Lee beat up the wrong person, which completely changed his life.

Planning to go to the USA

When he was 19 years old, Bruce Lee ran into an opponent with an organized crime background. Even though the opponent was no match for him and Bruce Lee won easily, the opponent’s family became furious and started searching for him. Even a skilled martial artist like Bruce Lee wouldn’t stand a chance against a powerful criminal organization. So, fearing for their son’s life, Bruce Lee’s parents asked him to go to the USA. 

Hong Kong was a familiar place for Bruce Lee, and he had many friends there. Moreover, he was the boxing and dancing champion. So, he was sure that he could build a better future if he stayed in Hong Kong. The USA, on the contrary, will be a completely new place. He had no friends there and would have to build his life from the beginning. So, Bruce Lee was initially reluctant to go to the USA. But ultimately, he gave up due to the pressure from his parents and agreed to go to the USA. He decided to become a dance master in America and make a living by teaching people Cha-Cha. So, in April 1959, with just $100 in his pocket, Bruce Lee boarded a steamship and set sail to San Fransisco, where his sister and family friends were.

Bruce Lee dancing Cha Cha – Image credits

En route to the USA

On the steamship, Bruce Lee’s ticket only gave him passage to the lower deck. But people soon heard that he was the Cha-Cha champion of Hong Kong. Therefore, the ship’s crew upgraded him to First class so that he could teach their first-class passengers Cha-Cha. 

The USA

San Fransisco

After landing in San Fransisco, Bruce Lee stayed there only for a short period. During this time, he worked as a dance master teaching Cha-Cha. 

Seattle

After a few months, he moved to Seattle to work as a waiter in the restaurant owned by Ruby Chow. Ruby Chow’s husband was a friend of Bruce Lee’s father. So, she gave him a job and living quarters. 

Teaching martial arts to friends

By this time, Bruce Lee had already abandoned his passions for acting and dancing. Instead, he decided to finish his high school education, which he had abruptly ended in Hong Kong. So, he enrolled himself at the Edison Technical School. The same year, Bruce Lee also started teaching martial arts to his friends. He named his style of martial arts Jun Fan Gung Fu, which meant Bruce Lee’s Kung Fu. Even though it was called Jun Fan Gung Fu, he was actually teaching his own approach to Wing Chun. 

College

One year later, Bruce Lee finished high school. Then, in 1961, he enrolled at the University of Washington and studied drama and philosophy. Even though Bruce Lee’s official major was drama, he was more interested in philosophy. During his time at the college, he wrote several essays linking martial arts techniques and philosophical principles. 

Bruce Lee’s first Kung Fu school

While he was studying at the university, some of Bruce Lee’s friends, whom he taught Kung Fu, encouraged him to open a real Kung fu school and start charging minimal fees to support himself while studying. So, Bruce Lee opened the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute in Seattle in 1962. By 1963, his school was big enough that he could support himself only by teaching Kung Fu. So, he gave up working at the restaurant and doing other odd jobs. 

Bruce Lee gets married

One of his students in 1963 was Linda Emery, a freshman at the university. Linda had seen Bruce earlier, when he had delivered guest lectures on Chinese philosophy, at her school. So, after joining the university, at the insistence of her Chinese friend, she started taking Bruce Lee’s Kung Fu lessons. Very soon, Bruce and Linda started dating, and in 1964, they got married. 

Bruce Lee becomes a full-time Kung Fu teacher

After three years of college, Bruce Lee decided to become a full-time Kung Fu teacher. So, in 1964, he dropped out of college and moved to Oakland with his wife. He left his first Kung Fu school in Seattle in the hands of his assistant and opened the second one in Oakland along with another Chinese martial artist called James Yimm Lee. After all, Oakland and the nearby San Fransisco had many martial artists, and Bruce Lee was eager to work with like-minded individuals and expand his school.

The two important events 

This biography of Bruce Lee would be incomplete without mentioning the two events that changed his life. 

In 1964, after Bruce Lee moved to Oakland, two important events would occur, which would change his life forever. The first event, the controversial fight with another martial artist, would prompt him to improve his martial arts techniques. The second event, the Long Beach International Karate Championships, would make him famous.

The controversial fight 

San Fransisco’s Chinatown

A Chinatown is a place outside China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan with a large concentration of Chinese people. San Fransisco has a Chinatown too. Before Bruce Lee came to San Fransisco, there were two major martial arts schools in Chinatown there. Each of these schools was headed by a revered master for more than two decades. Both these schools prohibited students from fighting on the streets. This was in stark contrast to the Hong Kong of the 1950s, where students from opposing martial arts schools often fought on the streets. So, Bruce Lee considered these schools in Chinatown ineffective and weak because their techniques were never tested in streetfights. 

The brush with Chinatown

In 1959, immediately after he arrived at San Fransisco, Bruce Lee tried to prove to one of these Chinatown masters that his style was superior. Obviously, Bruce Lee’s comments were not taken lightly. A few months later, Bruce Lee moved to Seattle. But even after he moved to Seattle, he was very vocal about the inefficiency of the traditional Kung Fu styles. 

An example of this can be found in the only book he wrote, ‘Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self-Defence.’ This book, which Bruce Lee published in 1963, has a section called ‘Difference in Gung Fu Styles.’ In this section, Bruce Lee dismantles the techniques illustrated by one of these Chinatown masters in his earlier book. Then, he demonstrates how his style is superior to the slower, half-cultivated styles of that master. 

Bruce Lee’s book, which was sold for $5 in Chinatown, led to disdain among Bruce Lee and other Chinatown masters. They considered him ‘a dissident with bad manners,’ and he considered them ‘old tigers with no teeth.’

Public demonstrations belittling Chinatown masters

In 1964, Bruce Lee moved to Oakland, which was very near to San Fransisco. By this time, his contempt for traditional styles had increased, and he had become even more vocal about it. He started giving public demonstrations, explaining why his style was superior and would work in a streetfight. Then, he would methodically explain why other traditional styles wouldn’t work in a streetfight. 

Once, during such a demonstration at the Sun Sing Theater in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown, Bruce delivered a one-inch punch to a spectator. But instead of being knocked back, the spectator stood still. Even though Bruce Lee knocked the spectator back with a second one-inch punch, the spectator claimed that he wasn’t prepared for a second punch. So, the crowd started laughing and booing at Bruce Lee. This annoyed Bruce Lee, who invited anyone on to the stage, who thought he was better than him. He then announced that he was the best man on the stage and in San Fransisco and would welcome anyone who thinks otherwise for a duel.

Wong Jack Man

In 1963, around the time when when Bruce Lee’s book was published, another martial artist named Wong Jack Man showed up in Chinatown. Unlike Bruce’s Wing Chun, which specialized in short-range combat, Wong’s style focused on acrobatic long-range attacks. 

The controversial fight

As Wong was slowly becoming famous in Chinatown, in 1964, due to unknown reasons, he fought against Bruce. This fight between two 23-year old martial artists from Hong Kong happened in closed quarters with only a handful of witnesses. Therefore, there are two versions as to what caused the fight and what happened in it. 

Bruce Lee’s side of the story

According to Bruce and his wife Linda’s version, Chinatown was not happy when their school started attracting many non-Chinese students. So, they asked him to stop teaching non-Chinese students. When he refused to comply, they sent Wong Jack Man to fight against Bruce Lee. They said that if he won, he could teach anyone he wanted, but if he lost, he had to shut his school down. Bruce Lee commented that the paper given to him had the names of popular Chinatown masters, but he wasn’t afraid. So, the fight, which was a no-rules-barred match, where anyone could hit anywhere, began. 

According to Linda, there were thirteen people in the room. According to her, the fight lasted only three minutes, during which time Bruce completely dominated Wong. The fight ended when Wong started running, and Bruce pounced on him and pinned him to the ground. Wong was already beaten badly and was completely demoralized. So, he surrendered immediately when Bruce Lee pinned him to the ground.

Bruce Lee later revealed in an interview that even though he had won the fight against an unnamed opponent, he was disappointed that he couldn’t end the fight sooner and that his hands hurt from hitting his opponent’s head repeatedly as he ran. Moreover, according to Linda, Bruce Lee also ended up tired at the end of the fight. This proved to him that Wing Chun wasn’t as effective as he thought it was. He also realized that Wing Chun had very few kicking techniques. So, Bruce Lee decided to improve his techniques. Therefore, he abandoned his Wing Chun Style, which took several years to learn, and created his own style.

Wong Jack Man’s side of the story

According to Wong Jack Man, he invited Bruce to a fight only because of Bruce’s open declaration that no one in San Fransisco could beat him. Bruce insisted on fighting in a closed room and keeping the results secret. So, they fought inside a closed room. According to Wong, there were just seven people. 

Wong had expected the fight to be serious but sportsmanly. So, he tried to set up some safety rules for the fight. However, Bruce intended it to be a no-rules-barred fight. Moreover, when Wong attempted to shake hands with Bruce, Bruce aimed to hit Wong’s eyes. Thereafter, Bruce repeatedly used attacks aimed at Wong’s eyes, throat, and groin.

Wong was left to defend himself because it was obvious to him that Bruce was trying to kill him. Yet, Wong refrained from using his signature deadly kicks, which were his strongest weapons, because he was afraid to go to prison if he ended up killing Bruce. For the same reason, he also refrained from delivering a decisive blow, even though he had Bruce’s head locked under his left arm three times. On the contrary, Bruce came back at him more ferociously every time Wong released the headlock. According to Wong, the fight lasted for 20-25 mins and ended when finally Bruce became exhausted. 

Accounts from eyewitnesses

Bruce’s version had two witnesses, his wife and his friend James Lee, who had brought a gun, in case the fight got out of hand. Wong’s version, too, had a witness, even though nobody saw him locking Bruce Lee’s head under his left arm. 

Facts supporting Bruce Lee’s version of the story

The biggest piece of evidence supporting Bruce’s version is that Wong said the fight lasted for 20-25 mins. Despite both of them being Kung Fu masters in their own right, who might have had extraordinary stamina, a fight lasting for 20-25 mins seems too far fetched to be true. 

Facts supporting Wong’s version of the story

The biggest piece of evidence supporting Wong’s version was the fact that a mutual friend saw Wong working at a Cafe the very next day. The only change he could see was a scratch above one eye, which Wong claimed was inflicted during the handshake. If Bruce had indeed beaten up Wong so badly, how could he go to work the very next day?

Three weeks later, Bruce gave an interview claiming that he had beaten an unnamed challenger. In return, Wong published his own version of the fight in a Chinese newspaper and invited Bruce for a public rematch, if he wasn’t satisfied with Wong’s account of the fight. However, Bruce, who always responded to provocations, never responded.

Moreover, some people claim that Bruce Lee also tried to learn Kung Fu from Wong’s master but was rejected. Why would he try to learn a style of martial arts, which he himself deemed was unworthy?

According to Linda, the premise for the fight was that the Chinatown masters were against Bruce Lee teaching non-Chinese students. However, no proof supporting Linda’s accusations were found. Moreover, these 2 Chinatown masters, whom she accused, already had a handful of non-Chinese students, and Wong himself was not against teaching non-Chinese students.

According to Bruce Lee, the fight against a worthy opponent didn’t go as he had planned. Moreover, the victory was clumsy and not quick enough. But are these reasons strong enough for him to abandon his fighting style and put his body through strenuous training for the next ten years to develop his own style?

The ultimate result – The birth of Jeet Kune Do

Thus, each side has its own arguments, and one side may appear more convincing than the other. Yet, it is impossible to know what exactly happened that day. But one thing is obvious. Whatever happened behind those closed doors prompted Bruce Lee to abandon Wing Chun. It compelled him to learn other martial arts and eventually create his own martial art called Jeet Kune Do. 

Bruce Lee wanted Jeet Kune Do to be practical, quick, flexible, and efficient. So, he integrated weight training, running, stretching, and boxing techniques into it. 

Long Beach International Karate Championships

After Bruce Lee came to Oakland in 1964, James Lee introduced him to an American martial artist, who invited Bruce Lee to Long Beach International Karate Championships. In the championship, Bruce Lee demonstrated his two-finger push-ups and one-inch punch and dueled other martial artists. 

William Dozier

Bruce Lee’s techniques impressed many people in the audience. One of those people he impressed was a hairstylist, whose customers were famous movie stars. A few nights after watching the match, the hairstylist told his customer, a film-producer called William Dozier, about Bruce Lee’s spectacular demonstrations. So, William Dozier obtained a copy of the video made during the demonstration. After watching the video, he invited Bruce Lee to act in a television series. 

Bruce Lee’s first American television series

Bruce Lee had given up acting and dancing five years ago to focus on teaching Kung Fu. But in 1964, he came to a dilemma. He had already set up two schools. He wanted to set up more schools. But he was afraid that if he set up too many schools, he won’t be able to control the quality of teaching.

So, when William Dozier offered him a chance to appear in front of the camera, Bruce Lee took it. He decided to focus on acting and see if it would turn into a productive career. After all, if it turned into a successful career, he could showcase his talent to the entire world.

Publicity photo for The Green Hornet – – eBay itemphoto frontphoto back, Public Domain, Link

Thus, in 1966, Bruce Lee’s acting career in America began. His first television series was never aired. But his second television series, ‘The Green Hornet,’ in which Bruce Lee played Hero’s assistant, was an instant hit. It was the first popular American show that showcased Asian-style martial arts.

Difficult times

Children

For the next few years, acting opportunities were scarce for Bruce Lee. But his family was getting bigger. His son Brandon was born in 1965, and in 1969 his daughter Shannon was born. So, between 1967 and 1971, Bruce Lee tried to procure acting opportunities. Meanwhile, he gave private Jeet Kune Do classes to wealthy people from the entertainment industry to support his family. 

A severe injury

After his controversial fight with Wong Jack Man, Bruce Lee had committed himself to healthy nutrition and intense training. However, it would eventually come to bite him in the back. One fine morning in 1970, Bruce Lee lifted a 57kg barbell without a warmup and injured his back. His injury was so severe that he was told he would never be able to do Kung Fu again. However, defying everyone’s beliefs, after staying in bed for six months, Bruce Lee created his own recovery program, gradually built up his strength, and started practicing martial arts once again. 

Bruce Lee becomes a successful actor

Until now, Bruce Lee was only getting supporting roles in movies. He couldn’t get any major roles. So, in 1970, after recovering from his back injury, Bruce Lee traveled to Hong Kong. 

Upon landing in Hong Kong, Bruce Lee realized that his show ‘The Green Hornet’ was a big hit there. People in Hong Kong hailed him as a big hero. This made him believe that he could become a successful actor there. So, when the Hong Kong production company Golden Harvest tried to sign him up for two movies, he agreed. 

Films

The first film, The Big Boss, was released in 1971. It was the highest-grossing Hong Kong film. Made with a tight budget of $100,000, it grossed $50 million worldwide, 500 times its original investment. The next film, Fists of Fury, released in 1972, was an even bigger hit. Made with a tight budget of $100,000, it grossed $100 million worldwide. 

Now that Bruce Lee had become a very successful actor, he created his own production company called Concord productions, in partnership with Raymond Chow. The next film, Way of the Dragon, which Bruce Lee produced, directed, wrote and starred in, was an even bigger hit. It made $130 million worldwide, almost 1000 times its original investment. 

His final movie

In 1972, Bruce Lee started filming for Game of Death. While he was filming for the movie, Warner Bros gave Bruce Lee an offer to star in the movie Enter the Dragon. Since it was the first Kung Fu film produced by a Hollywood studio, and also since the budget, $850,000, was too high for a movie of that genre, Bruce Lee accepted the offer. 

Death

This film was also a big hit, which grossed more than $350 million worldwide. But even though the film broke many records, Bruce Lee did not live to see it. Just one month before the movie was released, on July 20th, 1973, Bruce Lee was found dead.

How did Bruce Lee die?

Two months earlier, Bruce Lee had suddenly collapsed while filming the movie Enter the Dragon. When taken to the hospital, Bruce Lee suffered from headaches and seizures. Doctors diagnosed his condition as Cerebral Edema, in which the excess fluid in the brain leads to swelling and pain. The doctors treated him immediately, and Bruce Lee returned to his normal life soon after. 

On July 20th, 1973, after meeting the producer Raymond Chow, Bruce Lee went to the house of his mistress and Taiwanese actress Betty Ting Pei. After spending several hours with her alone, he complained of a headache. So, Betty gave Bruce a common painkiller containing aspirin. Even after a few hours, Bruce Lee did not come down. So, Betty went up to check on Bruce. Upon finding him unresponsive, she called producer Chow, who couldn’t wake him up either. So, they sent for a doctor. When even the doctor couldn’t wake him up from his unconscious state, they sent him to a hospital in an ambulance. By the time Bruce Lee reached the hospital, he was dead. 

After his death, many conspiracy theories have popped up regarding the cause of his death. However, the real reason for his death was an allergic reaction caused by the painkiller. The painkiller caused a buildup of fluid in Bruce Lee’s brain, increasing its size by 13%. As a result, Bruce Lee fell into a coma and died. 

Did Bruce Lee really die because of an operation?

Bruce Lee thought that sweaty armpits looked bad on screen. So, several months before his death, Bruce Lee had surgery to remove sweat glands from his armpits. Then, on May 10th, 1973, he fainted on the hot sets of the film ‘Enter the Dragon’ when the air conditioning was switched off. Even though he was diagnosed with cerebral Edema, it might have been caused due to heatstroke, which kills athletic young men in the USA. Moreover, the risk of having a heatstroke increases if the person had had it before.

On the day of his death, Bruce Lee was excited and extremely active while acting. After a few hours, he felt extremely thirsty and slightly dizzy before getting a headache. So, even though he died because of Cerebral Edema, it was probably caused because of the heat. The probability that Bruce Lee died due to heatstroke only increases due to the fact that the day of his death also happens to be the hottest day of July that year in Hong Kong. So, the operation to remove his sweat glands in his armpits reduced his body’s ability to dissipate heat and might have ultimately killed him.

Facts you probably didn’t know

1. Jackie Chan worked as a stuntman on Bruce Lee’s films Enter the Dragon and Fist of Fury. He would often act injured just to speak to Bruce Lee. 
2. Bruce Lee often took multiple takes while filming because the cameras back then couldn’t capture his lightning-fast attacks. Many times, his opponents wouldn’t even have time to react. The early shots of the television series Green Hornet were refilmed several times because Bruce Lee’s attacks were so fast that it appeared like his opponents fell down while Bruce Lee did nothing. 
3. The Bruce Lee Foundation, founded by his daughter Shannon Lee, gives scholarships and martial arts training to youth in California.
4. Bruce Lee faced discrimination due to his mixed ethnicity. So, when he opened a martial arts school, he provided training to people from all races and genders. 
5. Even though Bruce Lee’s attacks were extremely fast, his eyesight was terrible. He suffered from nearsightedness. So, he became one of the first people to wear contact lenses. But he later stopped it because it was uncomfortable.
6. Bruce Lee admired Muhammad Ali and wanted to fight him. He even adopted some moves of Muhammad Ali into his own martial arts style. 
7. Bruce Lee might have been one of the strongest men on land. But at sea, he couldn’t even swim. 
8. He charged $275 an hour in the 1960s for private lessons. 
9. A few years after his death, the Golden Harvest production company released Bruce Lee’s last film, ‘The Game of Death.’ Bruce Lee had only filmed 40 minutes of the film before his death. So, it was unfinished when he died. Therefore, Golden Harvest used other actors, scenes from his other films, and even footage from Bruce Lee’s funeral to finish the movie. 
10. Bruce Lee is considered the father of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

What can you learn from the biography of Bruce Lee?

We hope that this biography of Bruce Lee helped you learn more about Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee died at the early age of 32. But what he achieved within his lifetime is not easy to contemplate. Even though he came from an affluent family, his rise from a bullied boy to a world-renowned martial artist and actor was due to his own efforts. His accomplishments exposed Chinese martial arts to the entire world. Even after his death, Bruce Lee continues to motivate thousands of people to learn martial arts. So, whenever everything goes against you, and you feel like giving up, read this biography of Bruce Lee. More importantly, remember what Bruce Lee said: 

“Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” (Source)

If you liked this biography of Bruce Lee, you might like the following biographies as well:

1. The biography of Sylvester Stallone
2. Biography of Charlie Chaplin
3. Biography of Marilyn Monroe

This blog post is a biography of Henry Ford. Henry Ford is an American businessman, innovator, industrialist, and philanthropist. His revolutionary models and innovative methods of production made automobiles accessible to middle-class Americans.Today, Henry Ford’s name is known throughout the world for his innovations and contribution to the US economy. But like most Americans those days, he was born to a farmer and raised on a farm.

Henry Ford

How did a boy who grew up on a farm become a man the entire world revered? Read this biography of Henry Ford to find out.

Early life

Parents

William Ford, Henry Ford’s father, was born in Ireland. His father, John Ford, immigrated to the USA in the 1800s. During their initial years in the USA, his family was not financially stable. So, making enough money to sustain himself was difficult for William. Therefore, he started working on a neighboring farm, where he met Mary Litogot. 

Mary’s parents, immigrants from Belgium, had died when she was a kid. So, she was taken care of by her neighbors, for whom William worked. Since William worked on the same farm where Mary was growing up, they had ample opportunity to meet. Eventually, they fell in love with each other and got married in 1861.

Meanwhile, William’s father rented some land and converted it into a thriving farm. William liked farming and wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. So, he worked very hard. As a result, by 1858, he became wealthy enough to buy his own share of land. Three years later, he even built a big house on the land he had purchased.

Birth

Two years after William built the house, on July 30th, 1863, Mary gave birth to their first child. They named him Henry. Even though four children were born after Henry, Mary always remained more attached to her first son Henry. Henry, too, loved his mother a lot and always looked forward to spending time with her.

Education

As is often the case with children, Henry Ford’s initial education came from his immediate family. His mother taught him to read, while his grandfather taught him the names of birds, animals, flowers, and trees in the forest. After the bout of this initial education, Ford started school at the age of seven. He studied in a one-room schoolhouse from the first grade to the eighth grade. 

Experiments as a kid

Ford’s curiosity

Since childhood, Ford was always curious and wanted to find out how and why things work. But he did not want to learn these from books. Instead, he wanted to find them out by conducting experiments. 

Steam engine

As a small boy, Ford became fascinated by the power of steam. So, when he was ten years old, he conducted a small experiment to find out how it worked. He took an earthen pot, filled it with water, tied the lid, and started heating it. After a few minutes, due to the pressure generated by the steam, the pot exploded, spilling hot water on him. Learning from his mistake, Ford then built a controlled steam engine using a baking powder can and a watch wheel. Since it was successful, Ford decided to build something better. So, he gathered his classmates and built a bigger steam engine. However, this time, his experiment failed, and the steam engine exploded, burning down the school fence.

The Pocket watch

When he was 12 years old, his father gifted him a pocket watch. Ford got immediately attracted to it. Thrilled by its mechanism, Ford wanted to see what was inside it. So, he created tools using farm machinery and immediately took the watch apart. Then he reassembled it and made it work, a feat most other children of his age wouldn’t be capable of. This experiment helped Ford understand the mechanism behind the watch and how gears and springs work together. Within a few days, his workbench was filled with watches from friends and family, which he repaired in return for a small amount of money.

William and Mary had five children. Like all the other children in their neighborhood, they hoped that their children too would take up farm work after them. But Ford was different. He despised the laborious farm work. Instead, he liked experimenting with machines and understanding the mechanism behind them. He wanted to build machines, which could make farm life easier. Fortunately for Ford, his parents never came in the way of his love for machines. Instead, they even allotted space for him in the kitchen, where he could conduct his experiments. 

Becoming an engineer

The Two important events

The year 1876 was an important year in the life of Henry Ford. This is the year when he decided to become an engineer. His decision was catalyzed by two important events. 

In July 1876, a man called Fred Reden brought a portable steam engine to Dearborn, where Ford lived. Until then, Ford had only seen horse-drawn carriages, which are a slow mode of transportation. So, when he saw this portable steam engine, he was thrilled. Fred even let Ford fire and run the engine. The thrill and joy it gave made little Ford believe that he was meant to be an engineer. The same year, when he saw another portable steam engine on the road while riding a horse-drawn carriage with his father, he immediately jumped off his wagon and started exploring it. After this incident, building a horseless, self-propelled vehicle that could replace horse-drawn carriages became his dream. Years later, he would realize this dream, impacting the entire world in the process.

The second event that made him decide to become an engineer was his mother’s death. Ford was closely attached to his mother. He never liked working on the farm. Yet, he worked there because he liked spending time with his mother. He never had any particular love for the farm—it was the mother on the farm he loved. So, when she died in 1876, his world was devastated. He couldn’t stand to be on the farm anymore. So, three years later, he left home and walked nine miles to the neighboring city of Detroit. 

Learning about steam engines

He found work in Detroit at the Michigan Car Company Works, which built streetcars. But his father, who understood his son’s love for machines, wanted him to have a better life. So, he arranged for him to stay with an aunt in Detroit and even found a job for him as an apprentice machinist. 

Since Detroit was a famous industrial city at that time, the rents were high. So, Ford worked two jobs – as a machinist during the day and as a watch mechanic in a jewelry shop at night. He earned $4.5, which was enough to pay his rent. But despite leading a difficult life, Ford loved his job. So, he worked very hard, learning everything about machines, steam engines, and heavy industry. 

Ford returns home

Becoming an expert on steam engines

After working for three years in Detroit, in 1882, Ford decided to return home. He took this decision neither due to the love for his family nor due to the burden of working two jobs for a prolonged time, but due to the desire to operate the portable steam engine, which his neighbor had recently purchased.

The portable steam engine was an agricultural invention at that time. These steam engines were pulled to the farm by horses and used to power other machines, like sawmills, which cut wood, and threshers, which separate the seeds from the stalk. In short, it made farmers’ lives easier.

Ford’s neighbor didn’t know anything about steam engines, even though he had purchased one. So, he was looking for someone to operate and maintain it. Therefore, Ford, who was now an expert on steam machines, returned home and started maintaining it. However, his neighbor wasn’t the only one who had a portable steam engine. Several other farmers in the locality owned such steam engines. So, since Ford was the steam engine expert in the locality, they paid him to repair their steam engines. Eventually, he was even hired by the Westinghouse company, which manufactured these steam engines. 

Marriage

Meanwhile, Ford fell in love with Clara Jane Bryant, who grew up on a nearby farm. Ford’s father offered him 80 acres of land as a gift for their marriage. He hoped that Ford would stop obsessing about machines and take up farming instead. But Ford had no intention of becoming a farmer. At the same time, he did not want to work for someone else either. He wanted to work on his own. So, he cut and sold the timber in the land his father gifted him. He then built a house and a machine shop in that land while farming now and then. Additionally, Ford also repaired the steam engines of farmers near him while going to Westinghouse occasionally to service their steam engines. He also studied bookkeeping at a college in Detroit. Thus, Ford started on the journey to becoming an entrepreneur.

Ford’s obsession

Meanwhile, Ford’s obsession with building a horseless, self-powered vehicle continued. So, he started making a steam wagon since his expertise was in steam engines. However, to his dismay, he soon found out that a steam-based road vehicle was not practically feasible. After all, to move a small wagon, Ford needed a big engine. In turn, a big engine needed a big wagon to hold it and a lot of fuel to operate. Moreover, there was also the risk of explosion due to overheating. So, he decided to move on and find an alternative to steam. 

Henry Ford, aged 25, in 1888 – Public Domain, Link

In those days, gasoline was a relatively new fuel. Only a few people in Europe and the USA were working on building a gasoline-powered vehicle. So, Ford, who thought that gasoline might be a better fuel than steam, started working on a gasoline-powered four-wheeled vehicle. However, working in a workshop on a farm, he couldn’t get the sophisticated parts needed to build it. So, he decided to move to a city where he could get better access to technology.

Ford builds his first gasoline vehicle

Edison Illuminating Company

In 1892, Ford got a job at Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit. While the city provided him access to modern technology, the job provided him an opportunity to learn electrical engineering. So, even though he had to leave his comfortable life behind, Ford took the job. 

Initially, when he started working as a night operating engineer at Edison Illuminating Company, his salary was $40/month. But Ford was highly skilled and extremely hard working. So, he was promoted frequently. Thus, in a few months, he took charge of the maintenance of steam engines for a salary of $75/month. In four years, he became the Chief Engineer of the Edison Illuminating company.

Even though Ford was having such a successful career at the Edison Illuminating Company, he was not satisfied. His dream was to build a self-propelled vehicle. So, after working long hours at the company, he came home and started working on the gasoline vehicle. After spending several sleepless nights, he built the first gasoline engine in December 1893. The engine ran only for over a minute. But it proved to Ford the power of gasoline as a fuel. 

In the November 1895 issue of American Machinist magazine, Ford read the report of a wooden vehicle. Built by another engineer from Detroit, Charles King, it could travel at a maximum speed of 8 km/hour. Reading this report, Ford became hopeful. So, motivated by the initial success of building a gasoline engine, he started experimenting more. Finally, six years after he started working on the gasoline vehicle, Ford built his first gasoline vehicle in 1896.

The Quadricycle

The Quadricycle had a two-cylinder, four-horsepower motor with an 11-liter gas tank. It had a steering wheel, a clutch, four bicycle wheels, a seating capacity of two people, and no brakes. The Quadricycle was built in a shed in Ford’s house secretly with the help of his friends. Therefore, only when Ford and his friend attempted to get the vehicle out of the shed through the door did they notice it was too wide. So, Ford took an axe, smashed the stone wall of the shed, and took the Quadricycle outside. 

At around 04:00 am on June 4th, 1896, Ford shifted it into gear, and the Quadricycle sprung to life. With his friend cycling ahead to warn passengers on the road, Ford drove the vehicle down the street. The vehicle was very loud and reached a maximum speed of 32 km/hour. Despite a small breakdown, the Quadricycle was a success. It was a remarkable accomplishment. It was way better than the wooden vehicle that Charles King had built. Until now, Henry Ford was considered a lunatic due to the hammering and tinkering sounds he caused at night. But as the news of the Quadricycle spread, he became an overnight sensation in Detroit. The Quadricycle changed Henry Ford’s life, who would later become one of the biggest innovators in the automobile industry.

The Ford Motor Company

Edison encourages Ford

The same year, Henry Ford’s boss invited him to the meeting of the Edison Illuminating company’s executives. At this meeting, Ford told Edison about his gasoline vehicle. Edison wanted to build electric vehicles. Even so, after listening to Ford, Edison thought that Ford’s design had a huge future. So, he told Ford that he was going in the right direction and that he should keep improving his design. Edison’s encouragement served as a huge boost to Ford’s morale. It made him think that he should get into the business of manufacturing gasoline vehicles. But there was one big obstacle in his way – He did not have sufficient money. 

Henry Ford was a nobody before he built the Quadricycle. But the Quadricycle changed everything. It made even the most prominent people in Detroit respect Ford and look at him as a genius. One of these prominent people was the Mayor of Detroit. The Mayor came to Ford’s aid when he needed the capital to start an automobile business. He arranged for Ford to meet with many influential people in the city. In July 1899, Ford took one of those influential people, a wealthy lumber merchant from Detroit called William H. Murphy, on a ride on the second gasoline vehicle he had built in 1898. After the 96.5 km ride that lasted for 3 hours and 30 minutes, Ford gained his first financial backer. 

The Detroit Automobile Company

One month later, with the funds from Murphy and his friends, the Detroit Automobile Company was set up. Soon, Ford resigned from the Edison Illuminating Company and joined the Detroit Automobile Company as its superintendent. His salary was $150/month.

In the 1890s, automobile manufacturing was in its initial stages. Therefore, due to the cost of manufacturing, automobiles only served as luxurious toys for rich people. But Henry Ford grew up on a farm. He knew how difficult transportation was for farmers and middle-class workers. So, he wanted to build cheap automobiles of the highest quality to change people’s lives. But to build cheap reliable cars, he needed to experiment a lot, which needed a lot of time.

However, time was one luxury his investors couldn’t afford. After all, the automobile business was quickly becoming competitive. In 1899, when the Detroit Automobile Company was founded, it was one of the first car manufacturing companies in Detroit. However, within two years, a hundred more were founded. Therefore, the shareholders of the Detroit Automobile Company pushed Ford to give them quick results. So, even though Ford was the brain of the company, and until now, he had only built vehicles without a deadline, he was forced to build cars in the shortest time possible, compromising on quality. 

The Detroit Automobile Company shuts down

The first car that their company built looked more like a horse-drawn wagon. It ran only for a few minutes before stopping. Therefore, as expected, it failed in the market. 

It was now obvious to the company’s investors that manufacturing cheap and reliable cars would be time-consuming and difficult. It would take several experiments to build a cheaper car, which would cost them both time and money. So, they decided to build a reliable luxury car for the wealthy, which could make huge profits even when sold in small numbers. However, their decision went against Ford’s motto of building cheap automobiles to transform people’s lives. So, to buy time, Ford decided to fool his investors by making his workers build car parts for cars he was never going to build. Meanwhile, he started experimenting, trying to rectify the design and mechanical problems, so that he could build a better, cheaper automobile the next time. Finally, his investors realized what Ford was doing and shut the company down in 1901.

Building a racing car

After the company shut down, Ford wanted to make his name known in the automobile sector. Then, he could start a new company and make all the crucial decisions. So, since automobile racing was a sport that was becoming increasingly popular, he decided to build a racing car. By mid-1901, funded once again by Murphy, Ford built a 2-cylinder lightweight racing car. 

In October 1901, Ford’s 26-horsepower car raced against a 40-horsepower car in a 16 km race. Interest in the race was unprecedented. Many shops shut down, and hundreds, if not thousands of people turned up to watch the race. Ford, who had little experience as a driver, was competing against the most popular driver in America. A defeat was imminent. But Ford had unshakable faith in his engine. 

The race began. For the first 33% of the race, Ford lagged behind. However, his opponent’s car overheated soon, and Ford edged past him. Thereafter, his opponent could never overtake him. Finally, when he finished the race, Ford was ahead of his opponent by almost one and a half kilometers. This success, which nobody expected, made Ford hugely popular. He quickly became a hero to the people and a legend to the racing community. 

The Cadillac Automobile Company

Due to this success and newfound motivation, the stockholders of the Detroit Automobile company founded another company. This company, founded just one month after the race, was named the Henry Ford Company. Even though the company planned to build lightweight commercial vehicles, Ford was still hellbent on building race cars. So, the company hired another reputed mechanical engineer as the consultant. Annoyed, Ford left the company. After Ford’s exit, the Henry Ford Company became the Cadillac Automobile Company.

Immediately after exiting the company, Ford started building two racing cars. One of these cars, an 80-horsepower car called ‘999,’ won the Manufacturers’ Challenge Cup, held in October 1902. It had a maximum speed of 147 km/hour. 

Due to this victory, Ford’s popularity surged further. After the race, Alexander Y. Malcomson, a coal dealer from Detroit with whom Ford had been in touch, agreed to support Ford financially. 

The Ford & Malcomson Company

In November 1902, one month after the race, the Ford & Malcomson Company, Ltd was established. To generate revenue, the company issued 15,000 shares at $10 each. But since the company was new, Ford and Malcomson couldn’t get people to buy these shares. So the company got into a financial deadlock when their suppliers demanded money for the car parts they delivered. Moreover, the company had to pay salaries to seven workers, despite not having sold any cars yet. Thus, immediately after it was founded, the company fell into a financial crisis. 

To save them from this financial crisis, Malcomson turned to his friends and family for help. Malcomson had some wealthy friends and relatives. Among them, Malcomson’s uncle, secretary, and lawyers believed that their company would become a profitable enterprise. So, they decided to help Malcomson by purchasing shares from the company. At the same time, Malcomson and Ford were able to convince their suppliers to become their shareholders. Thus, Malcomson had saved the company, for the time being, bringing in an investment of $28,000. But the company was still not out of trouble, because they haven’t sold any cars yet. 

The Ford & Malcomson Company becomes the Ford Motor Company

On June 15th, 1903, at Malcomson’s insistence, the company was renamed the ‘Ford Motor Company.’ But despite bringing in new stockholders and renaming the company, the company’s financial condition was still in shambles. By July 11th, the company had used up all of its investments, and its cash balance was down to $223.65. However, the light at the end of the tunnel was not far away. Four days later, the company sold its first car to a doctor in Chicago. After Ford’s 40th birthday, which was on July 30th, 1903, the company’s financial situation started to improve further. In the three months that followed, the Ford Motor Company sold 195 vehicles, generating $142,481.72 in income and $36,957 in profit.

The car that changed everything

Fordmobile

By 1904, the Ford Motor Company had established itself as a successful automobile manufacturer, producing 1700 cars/year. Its competitor at that time was Oldsmobile, the biggest automobile manufacturer in the USA, which was producing more than 3000 cars/year. To compete with Oldsmobile, the Ford Motor Company purchased land and built its second production plant.

The first car that the Ford Motor Company launched was called Fordmobile, also called Ford Model A. It seated two people and had a reliable eight horsepower engine. Even though it was a remarkable achievement, it was prone to overheating and other problems, typical to cars of that era. But despite its pitfalls, people loved it and paid $700 to purchase it. 

Model T

Even though the Ford Motor Company’s reputation and sales were increasing, Henry Ford was not satisfied. He wanted to improve Model A. So, in the following years, Henry Ford launched a new model every few months. Slowly, he worked his way through the English alphabet, releasing models from A to S. In October 1908, Ford released model T. The Model T had a 22-horsepower, four-cylinder engine. It had a maximum speed of 64 km/hour, didn’t break down a lot, and was highly durable. It was relatively cheap at $825, and no other car under $2000 from any manufacturer could offer more. So, people from many walks of life could afford it. Therefore, even doctors, salesmen, and farmers, who never dreamed of purchasing a car, ended up buying Model T. After all, now, they could go whenever and wherever they wanted to go.

Henry Ford had found gold, and he wanted to keep it. So, for the next few years, he tried to reduce the manufacturing costs by focusing on building only Model T. He built a system of interchangeable parts, thus reducing waste, assembly time, and the training time of new employees. As a result, the price of Model T went down further. 

Improving productivity

Ford was still not satisfied. Now, he had reached a point where he could sell all that he could make. But he wanted to go to a point where he could make all that he could sell. And the way to do that was to produce more cars. So, in December 1913, Ford introduced an assembly line for assembling cars. 

Ford divided the assembly of Model T’s into 84 small tasks. Instead of teaching every worker the entire assembly of a vehicle, he now trained each worker to do just one of these tasks. Cars were then placed on conveyor belts and moved across the factory through different workstations. In each workstation, the workers performed the same task in each car. Since these small tasks were easy, his workers learned fast and performed individual tasks faster. 

The moving production line was being used in the meat processing industry for a long time. Ford took the concept and implemented it in the automobile industry. By doing so, he was able to bring down the construction time of one Model T car from 12 hours and eight minutes to 1 hour and 33 minutes. Consequently, the sales price of Model T went down from $825 in 1908 to $360 in 1916. As a result, the sales of Model T’s rose steadily, and by 1922, half the cars in America were Model T’s. 

The downside

Henry Ford had now achieved something nobody else could. But, it came at a cost. In the Ford Motor Company, employees worked two nine-hour shifts every day. Working nine hours a day, six days a week is no ordinary feat. In addition to that, each worker stood at the same place, doing the same tasks again and again, for months. Therefore, for the workers of the Ford Motor Company, the work became monotonous and depressing.

As a result, retaining employees became a very big problem for Ford. In 1913, to keep a workforce of 14,000 men, the company had to hire 52,000 people. Simply put, the company had to hire four employees for every position, hoping that one of them would stay for more than a few months. 

Solving the problem of employee abandonment

To solve this crisis, Ford came up with an ingenious solution. On January 12th, 1914, the company reduced the workload from nine hours a day to eight hours a day. Moreover, the company also increased the basic pay from $2.34 a day to $5.00 a day. Thus, Ford decided to give away a lot of his profits to his employees. This move startled both his business partners and competitors, who predicted imminent doom for the Ford Motor Company. However, Ford proved everyone wrong the next day, when 10,000 men showed up at his company, looking for a job, eventually improving employee retention and increasing production. 

Since Ford reduced the working hours from nine hours a day to eight hours a day, his company shifted from two nine-hour shifts to three eight-hour shifts, enabling him to produce more cars. The increased salary meant that he could retain his workers longer, and many of them would now be able to purchase his cars. On one side, Ford was losing money due to increased salaries. But on the other side, he was also making money due to an increase in sales and a reduction in training costs. 

The national hero

By now, Ford has become not only an engineer, innovator, and businessman, but also a national hero. His $5 a day salary made headlines in national as well as international newspapers. But Ford was an idealist who expected people to live according to his rules. So, this publicity only boosted his ego. 

Ford’s tendency to control

Controlling his employees

Most of the Ford Motor Company’s workers came from southern and eastern Europe. However, their supervisors were mostly American. This created a language barrier between the workers. So, Ford took it upon himself to educate and Americanize these people. He created schools where his workers learned English as well as how to live a civilized life. These schools taught them everything, from brushing their teeth to saving money to buy a house. 

Besides these mandatory courses that took six months, workers were also subjected to regular inspections. Inspectors from the Ford Motor Company’s sociology department visited employees’ houses to ensure that they met the company’s standards. These inspectors analyzed everything from the workers’ drinking problems to how clean they kept their houses. Those who failed the inspections twice were fired from the company. It was an outrageous intrusion of privacy. Yet, Ford considered himself a national hero and thought it was his duty to teach his workers how to live.

Jeopardizing company’s growth

Ford’s ego not only made him meddle with his employees’ private lives but also affected his company’s growth. During the 1910s, Ford was convinced that Model T was the car people wanted. So, he had stopped building new cars. He ignored the fact that the popularity of more expensive and stylish cars like Chevrolet was rising. He paid no heed to his only son and his executives, who suggested that a new model was long overdue.

Once, when Ford was in Europe, his engineers built a prototype for a new Model. However, when Ford noticed the prototype, he became furious. He then went on to demolish the car by hand, starting by ripping the doors off the car. Thus, he showed his employees not only who was in charge of the company but also how big his ego has become. By now, one thing was evident – The curious engineer in him, who tinkered with car parts and toiled through the night to build a better Model, had died. In his place stood a businessman who loved to be in control and play the role of the national hero.

By the time Ford realized that his son and executives were correct, it was too late. In the late 1920s, even Ford couldn’t ignore the decline in sales of the Ford Motor Company. Other companies were slowly starting to catch up.

The end of Model T

In 1922, the Ford Motor Company acquired the Lincoln Motor Company, which was founded by Cadillac’s founder. The Lincoln Motor Company focussed on making high-end cars. Sometime later, the Ford Motor Company established the Mercury division. It produced cars to serve the mid-price automobile market, between the Lincoln and the Ford brands. However, despite being equipped to serve all markets now, Henry Ford’s interest still lied in the low-end market. On the other hand, General Motors started releasing cars for every market at all prices. So, in the mid-1920s, General Motors started rising rapidly as the USA’s leading automobile manufacturer. Finally, in 1927, Henry Ford realized that model-T’s days were over. So, after selling 15 million Model T’s in 19 years, Ford shut down the assembly lines of Model T.

Model A

After closing down the assembly lines of Model T, the Ford Motor Company launched its next Model. Since it had been such a long time since they released a new model, they went back to the beginning of the alphabet once again and named it Model A. Model A had a four-cylinder, 40-horsepower engine, and reached a maximum speed of 104 km/hour. Even though it cost $500, it was competitive in the market because it was more economical in the long run. In the next five years, the Ford Motor Company sold more than 4.3 million Model A’s.

In 1932, the Ford Motor Company launched Ford V8, the first inexpensive 8-cylinder engine. For the next 20 years, these engines were used in many vehicles all over the world. 

Henry Ford tried hard to keep his Company in the lead. But despite Henry Ford’s best efforts, the fall of the Ford Motor Company couldn’t be stopped. By 1936, it fell to third place in the US automobile market, behind General Motors and Chrysler Corporation. Even though the Ford Motor Company remained one of the Big Three (the three biggest important car manufacturers) in the USA for the rest of the twentieth century, it could never return to the glorious days of Model-T.

Problems in the Workplace

But the problems the Ford Motor Company faced were not limited just to the marketplace. There were also problems in the workplace. Henry Ford had always hated labor unions. He believed that labor unions headed by bad leaders could hurt workers more than benefit them. 

The first attempt to create a labor union in the Ford Motor Company occurred in 1913. Workers became agitated because Ford used the profits from the sales of Model T’s to fund his personal projects, instead of sharing it with his employees. Therefore, they wanted to create a labor union that would represent them. But Ford was able to ward it off by increasing his employees’ salaries and reducing their working hours. 

UAW

In 1913, the Ford Motor Company was the leader in the automobile market. So, Ford was able to take alternate measures when his workers demanded a labor union. In 1937, however, the scenario was very different. Due to the Great Depression, Ford had to reduce the salaries of his employees and even layoff many of them.

Moreover, an organization called the UAW (United Auto Workers of America) had recently succeeded in establishing labor unions in two of the Big Three companies – General Motors and Chrysler Corporation. The Ford Motor Company was the only Big Three company that was still holding out against the UAW. The UAW was promising to fight for an eight-dollar, 6-hour workday. In exchange, it asked the workers to support them. It was appealing to Ford workers, who had a six-dollar, 8-hour workday. Therefore, Ford’s employees felt the need for a labor union much stronger than ever before. 

On May 26th, 1937, henchmen of Henry Ford attacked UAW organizers who tried to distribute leaflets to Ford’s employees. Several of these attacks were captured on camera and appeared in newspapers the next day. As a result, Henry Ford’s reputation nosedived across the entire world, and he came under pressure from the US government. However, unyielding, Ford threatened to shut down his factories. When it appeared that a full-scale war between Ford and his employees was inevitable, in 1941, under pressure from his wife, Ford suddenly gave up and signed a contract with UAW. If his wife had not intervened at the last minute, Ford’s ego would have led to so many deaths. It could have also destroyed the Ford Motor Company, which he tried so hard to create.

Effect on his son

By now, it should be obvious how Henry Ford’s beliefs, stubbornness, and tendency to control people affected his workers and his company’s growth. But it did not stop there. Ford’s beliefs and his tendency to control people also affected his only son Edsel Ford. 

Edsel shared his father’s interest in cars. Every day, after school, instead of going home, he would go to his father’s factory and help out. While Henry was interested in the mechanical aspect of cars, Edsel was interested in its design. In December 1918, when he was just 25 years old, Edsel took up the presidency of the Ford Motor Company, which was a huge responsibility. Both Henry and Edsel shared a mutual respect for each other. However, there were also times when they didn’t see eye to eye. 

Ford’s guilt

Henry wanted his son to be a carbon copy of himself.

Henry grew up on a farm and worked his way up gradually. But Edsel did not have to do that. Even though he shared his father’s love for cars and took up the presidency of the company in 1918 when he was just 25 years old, he did not have to work his way up the ranks, as his father did.

Even after Henry became famous, he did not become friends with the high-class society. He was still a farmer’s son, who loved to work on his own farm and repair machines. Henry woke up early, exercised every day, and never drank. He believed that his discipline was the secret of his success and expected his son to follow in his footsteps. Edsel, on the other hand, was not as disciplined as his father. He hung out with rich people and drank often.

This caused disagreements between the father and the son. There were times when these disagreements blew up, and Henry humiliated Edsel publicly.

Expecting Edsel to rise to Henry’s idealistic standards was unfair, and even Henry’s associates noticed that. Maybe Henry himself was aware of that as well. Therefore, when his son died in 1943 due to terminal stomach cancer, Henry was devastated due to sorrow and guilt. He believed that his unfair treatment of Edsel had caused his death. 

Henry Ford dies

After his son’s death, Henry Ford was never the same. Even though he took up the presidency of his company after his son’s death, he wasn’t mentally capable of holding that post. After all, a series of strokes in the 1930s had affected his mental ability. It was only worsened by his son’s death. So, just two years after he took up the presidency, he handed it over to his grandson. Then, he retired to his estate in Dearborn, where he died in 1947, aged 83.

Facts you probably didn’t know

1. In 1926, Ford introduced the five-day, 40-hour workweek concept. But he did not do it out of charity. Ford was, first and foremost, a businessman. He knew that if he gave his workers two days of recreation, they would spend more time traveling and shopping. Thus, a car would become necessary for many people, and this would lead to more sales. Moreover, giving them two days of recreation would also make them more productive at work. So, he introduced the five-day workweek in his company. 
2. Throughout his life, Henry Ford was a strong advocate of peace. He hated wars. So, when World War II began in 1939, he tried to keep the USA from entering the war. But when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the Ford Motor Company started making jeeps, tanks, and airplanes for the USA. 
3. Henry Ford was America’s second billionaire. The first billionaire was John D Rockefeller.
4. Ford purchased a weekly newspaper called ‘The Dearborn Independent‘ in 1918. Ford published articles regularly from 1919 to 1927 in the newspaper. Under Ford’s publication, the newspaper reached a readership of 900,000 in 1925.
5. Henry Ford had always been anti-semitic, a hater of Jews. He published articles in his newspaper condemning Jews, which were read by many people around the world. 
6. Henry Ford’s Model T was similar to the Volkswagen of Germany. Volkswagen was also meant to be an automobile for everyone, not just the rich. The term Volkswagen literally translates to ‘People’s car.’ Hitler and Ford also shared the same opinion about Jews – that they were responsible for all the evil in the world. Moreover, Ford was a famous American who advocated anti-semitism. Ford was a huge blow to people who thought that Antisemitism could not exist in a democratic nation like the USA. In addition to that, Hitler also liked Ford’s writing. So, Adolf Hitler had great admiration for Henry Ford. Therefore, in 1938, the Nazi regime awarded Ford the ‘Grand Cross of the German Eagle,‘ the highest honor Hitler could give to any foreigner.

The Grand Cross of the German Eagle – By Service_Cross_of_the_German_Eagle.JPG: Robert Lawton derivative work: PawełMM (talk) – Service_Cross_of_the_German_Eagle.JPG, CC BY-SA 2.5, Link

Conclusion

What can we learn from the biography of Henry Ford?

We hope that this biography of Henry Ford helped you understand how Henry Ford became a world-renowned innovator and businessman. Henry Ford’s journey is an extraordinary one. Even though he was born to a farmer, he gave up his comfort zone, worked hard, and rose through the ranks to become one of the most influential men in the USA. He might have made some bad decisions in the latter part of his life. But the changes he brought upon this world are hard to ignore. It is thanks to Henry Ford that cars became affordable to middle-class people. The increase in the number of cars created other businesses like gas stations, which employ a lot of people. Moreover, it also helped hotels and restaurants to flourish, thereby improving the economy as a whole.

Henry Ford proves that we can achieve what we dream of if we are committed to seeing it through to the end. Ironically, sticking to your dream, even when failure seems imminent, can eventually lead you to success. Remember what Henry Ford said:

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals. (Source)

If you liked this biography of Henry Ford, you might like the following biographies as well:

1. Biography of Vincent Van Gogh
2. Biography of Che Guevara
3. The success story of JK Rowling