Soichiro Honda was born in 1906 and he grew up helping his father repair bicycles in the small town of Komyo in Japan. While Soichiro Honda was in school he started a workshop with the intention of developing a piston ring which he planned to sell to Toyota. He spent day and night slaving away in his workshop and believing that he could produce the perfect design.
When he finally crafted his piston ring, Soichiro took his design to Toyota who told him that his work was not up to their standard. After suffering this setback, Soichiro was forced to go back to school and was taunted by engineers and others around him as a failure. Soichiro strongly believed in his idea and persevered for two more years before finally gaining a contract with Toyota. His attempts at building a factory to reproduce his work encountered difficulties because Japan was gearing up for war. It was difficult to find the building materials needed. Despite this setback, Honda found a new way of making concrete which allowed him to finish building the factory.
The factory he had struggled so hard to build was bombed twice during the war. Moreover, steel became unavailable. Honda responded by collecting gasoline cans which had been discarded by US fighters and using them to help regenerate his factory. He described them as “gifts from President Truman.” When Honda started rebuilding his factory, an earthquake finally destroyed it.
After the war, Honda came up with the idea of attaching a small engine onto his bicycle and quickly found that other people were interested in his innovation. Rising demand came with its own financial challenges. Honda dug deep and found an antidote. He wrote an inspiring letter to 18,000 bicycle shop owners asking them to help him revitalize Japan through innovation. A huge number of the shop owners he wrote to responded by giving Honda what little money they could to help him. Soichiro battled away with several redesigns before finally producing the ‘Super Cub’ which became an overnight success.
“Success is 99 percent failure.” – Soichiro Honda
By 1963, Honda was the top-selling brand of motorcycles in the United States. Apart from becoming the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world, Honda Motor Company has equally gone ahead to distinguish itself as one of the world’s largest and trusted automobile manufacturers, with every of their products sealed with the unshakeable Honda business philosophy of quality product and excellent service. Soichiro Honda died on August 5, 1991 at the age of 85, but not before seeing his dream come true; his once small business in Japan, becoming a global market leader spreading to many countries of the world.
Honda succeeded because of the passion and determination of a man who was totally committed to his dream. Despite suffering more failures and setbacks than most of us will see in a lifetime, Honda doggedly refused to let his idea die. Stay focused on your God-given goal and do not allow yourself to be distracted by any challenges that might come up. Refuse to let someone’s negative opinion about you become your reality. Some of the greatest ideas that are celebrated today survived because of the persistence of their promoters.
Sources: http://www.famousandrich.com/soichiro-honda-a-story-of-persistence/ http://www.successprinciplesonline.com/business-success-stories/the-soichiro-hondas-success-story-how-he-created-the-worlds-most-successful-motorcycle-business/196.htm
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