The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work

A Restatement of Ford’s Basic Principles
In the first chapter was set forth the creed. Let me repeat it in the light of the 
work that has been done under it—for it is at the basis of all our work:
 
(1) An absence of fear of the future or of veneration for the past. One who 
fears the future, who fears failure, limits his activities. Failure is only 
the opportunity more intelligently to begin again. There is no disgrace 
in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail. What is past is use-
ful only as it suggests ways and means for progress.
 
(2) A disregard of competition. Whoever does a thing best ought to be the 
one to do it. It is criminal to try to get business away from another 

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244  •  The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work
man—criminal because one is then trying to lower for personal gain the 
condition of one’s fellow-men, to rule by force instead of by intelligence.
 
(3) The putting of service before profit. Without a profit, business cannot 
extend. There is nothing inherently wrong about making a profit. Well-
conducted business enterprises cannot fail to return a profit but profit 
must and inevitably will come as a reward for good service. It cannot 
be the basis—it must be the result of service.
 
(4) Manufacturing is not buying low and selling high. It is the process of 
buying materials fairly and, with the smallest possible addition of cost, 
transforming those materials into a consumable product and distrib-
uting it to the consumer. Gambling, speculating, and sharp dealing 
tend only to clog this progression.
We must have production, but it is the spirit behind it that counts most. 
That kind of production which is a service inevitably follows a real desire to 
be of service. The various wholly artificial rules set up for finance and indus-
try and which pass as “laws” break down with such frequency as to prove 
that they are not even good guesses. The basis of all economic reasoning is 
the earth and its products. To make the yield of the earth, in all its forms, 
large enough and dependable enough to serve as the basis for real life—the 
life which is more than eating and sleeping—is the highest service. That is the 
real foundation for an economic system. We can make things—the problem 
of production has been solved brilliantly. We can make any number of differ-
ent sort of things by the millions. The material mode of our life is splendidly 
provided for. There are enough processes and improvements now pigeon-
holed and awaiting application to bring the physical side of life to almost 
millennial completeness. But we are too wrapped up in the things we are 
doing—we are not enough concerned with the reasons why we do them. Our 
whole competitive system, our whole creative expression, all the play of our 
faculties seem to be centred around material production and its by-products 
of success and wealth.
There is, for instance, a feeling that personal or group benefit can be had 
at the expense of other persons or groups. There is nothing to be gained by 
crushing any one. If the farmer’s bloc should crush the manufacturers would 
the farmers be better off? If the manufacturer’s bloc should crush the farm-
ers, would the manufacturers be better off? Could Capital gain by crushing 
Labour? Or Labour by crushing Capital? Or does a man in business gain by 
crushing a competitor? No, destructive competition benefits no one. The kind 
of competition which results in the defeat of the many and the overlordship 
of the ruthless few must go. Destructive competition lacks the qualities out of 
which progress comes. Progress comes from a generous form of rivalry. Bad 
competition is personal. It works for the aggrandizement of some individual 
or group. It is a sort of warfare. It is inspired by a desire to “get” someone. It 

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What We May Expect  •  245
is wholly selfish. That is to say, its motive is not pride in the product, nor a 
desire to excel in service, nor yet a wholesome ambition to approach to sci-
entific methods of production. It is moved simply by the desire to crowd out 
others and monopolize the market for the sake of the money returns. That 
being accomplished, it always substitutes a product of inferior quality.