The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work

William A. Levinson

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xv
Editor’s Introduction
This edition of My Life and Work contains almost all the material of 
the original, plus more than 30% new content that explains and rein-
forces Ford’s principles. The book distinguishes the two (Ford’s words 
and those of the editor) by showing Ford’s words as indented, extract 
text, and in the style (punctuation, spelling, and grammar) original to 
his book.
My Life and Work was originally an autobiography and a chronology of 
the Ford Motor Company, so it does not organize subjects as one would 
expect in a modern textbook or business book. There is usually a logical 
progression from one chapter to the next, but the reader will nonetheless 
find, for example, information on Lean manufacturing in many parts of the 
book as opposed to a specific chapter. The same applies to Ford’s emphasis 
on the importance of design for reliability, selection of appropriate materi-
als, and so on. This edition, therefore, has added second- and third-level 
headings to the original chapter titles to make it easier for the reader to find 
information. The reader may also note the authors’ use of British spellings 
(e.g., rumour, mould, labour, and programme) for many words, which may 
have been common practice in the early twentieth century.
However, the first thing to do is to lay out the key principles and con-
cepts that the reader should learn from this book. The most important is 
Ford’s proven “universal code” for success in any enterprise.