My favorite entrepreneurial aspect from this episode was the difference in Henry Ford's purpose for creating the model T. I loved that Henry Ford prioritized the creation of value rather than achieving financial success for himself. Don't get me wrong, Ford did make lots of money while doing it, but it was because he played an essential role in American lives. In short, the aspect I'm referring to is the entrepreneur's desire to make value exceed price in a society. I would argue that Ford is the most famous example of this.
To begin, Henry Ford was so successful with the Model T that many people have associated him as the inventor of the automobile. The reason for that is because he was the first entrepreneur to bring an affordable automobile to the market. When Henry Ford was enabled to start selling the Model T, it was a major disruption to the industry. Automobiles were no longer exclusive to the rich, which meant a much larger percentage of the American population now had access to more efficient transportation. Naturally, this accessibility made American lives much more convenient, and noticeably increased economic productivity.
Next, with his innovation of the assembly line, Ford made it possible to produce a car that would normally take twelve hours in just 93 minutes. Talk about value! Other large corporations followed suit shortly after to gain a similar economic advantage. Not only did this increase productivity, but it also allowed him to pay his workers more than double the average wage of a factory employee. So, the working class were flooding in to get a part of this new industry in hopes of higher standards of living.
This aspect was entrepreneurial because it wasn't Ford's success in managing resources but their creation. Ford was famous for saying, "“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business,”. I believe that he was referring to the titans of his time like Carnegie and Rockefeller when he made this statement. There's no doubt that Ford stuck to this quote in the beginning of his career. He made society a lot richer by offering an affordable automobile and creating the assembly line. Both made him rich because they were highly valued by our society. This was interesting because he was so successful as an entrepreneur that he is mistakenly known as the inventor of the automobile. His passion for value creation inevitably became a part of the automobile industry. The most interesting thing about Ford was the thought of where would we be without his ingenuity? What were the "unseen affects"?
This aspect of entrepreneurship is the most helpful effect to society. Society benefits because the entrepreneur is not just in the business of making money. The entrepreneur is striving to provide more value than the industry can currently provide. That in turn makes society's life a whole lot more enjoyable. Similarly, society supports this aspect for entrepreneurs. Because society constantly demands more value, entrepreneurs are incentivized to supply it through innovative efforts. Notice that value is not limited to money. I have never heard somebody request higher prices for something they want to buy. If any, they will seek lower prices. So, sometimes the value created is offering a highly valued product at a lower price. This is the case for the Model T I referenced in the beginning of my post. Overall, this interaction is a positive one. Everyone benefits from the creation of value because it increases standards of living and our favorite: optionality. I think that successful entrepreneurs will always look for greatness by creating value. I can't imagine a society that will ever want the price to exceed the value in any given market.
