• be Soichiro Honda
• born a blacksmith's son, despises school, loves the smell of oil
• 1936: spends his life savings developing a piston ring concept
• pitches it to Toyota; their engineers laugh at him
• out of 50 rings submitted, only 3 pass quality control
• Rejected.
• pawns his wife’s jewelry just to buy food and materials
• goes back to school at age 30 to learn metallurgy, gets bullied by younger students
• sits in the back, refuses to take exams, tells the professor: "A diploma won't feed me."
• finally perfects the manufacturing process, builds a factory
• 1944: US B-29 bombers destroy the factory.
• rebuilds it from the rubble
• 1945: Mikawa earthquake flattens it again.
• realizes the universe is telling him to stop
• sells the wreckage to Toyota, buys a giant tank of alcohol, and does nothing but drink for a year
• wakes up broke, sees his wife struggling to pedal her bicycle to the market
• has a spark of madness: finds a surplus radio generator engine and straps it to her bike
• it makes a "bata-bata" sound; neighbors beg him to make one for them
• founds Honda Motor Co. in a wooden shack
• 1954: company is near bankruptcy, but he announces he will enter the Isle of Man TT (the deadliest race on earth)
• "I pledge my entire heart and soul to win this race."
• goes to Europe, sees German engines are 3x more powerful, returns to Japan to work 18-hour days
• returns to the Isle of Man and dominates the 125cc and 250cc classes
• decides to build cars; Japanese Government (MITI) bans him
• "Japan doesn't need another car company. Stick to motorcycles."
• sends the government a furious letter: "I will do it anyway."
• enters Formula 1 in 1964 just to spite the bureaucrats
• 1973: US passes the Clean Air Act; GM and Ford say the standards are "impossible" to meet
• Honda buys a Chevy Impala, flies it to Japan, installs his CVCC engine heads on it
• flies it back to the US, passes the EPA test with flying colors
• humiliates the biggest car companies on earth with a fraction of their budget
• dies as the "Henry Ford of Japan"
Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure.
