What do Model T Fords and Southwest Airlines have to do with owning your own business?
People made cars before Henry Ford came along. But they were expensive. Why? Because they were made by hand. They were more status symbols than a necessity.
Henry did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, but he used the concept of the assembly line to mass-produce automobiles. Once he got his factory up and running, he was making more cars than the other 299 automakers. When the last Model T rolled off the assembly line, Ford was building a car every 24 seconds. This was in 1927.
Ford’s first year of production sold more than 10,000 Model Ts. Over a period of nineteen years, Ford sold more than 15 million cars. How did you sell so many?
Because he was selling them for around $800 a piece.
This is how Henry Ford changed the world. He made the car affordable for the masses. He democratized the car.
Back in 1967, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher sat on a napkin, drew a triangle connecting Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, talked about creating an airline that was fun and cheap, and changed the history of air travel. Back then, if you wanted to go from city to city too far to drive, you took a bus.
Unless you were rich.
King and Kelleher’s new airline, Air Southwest, was going to change all that. Of course, the airline industry was not thrilled and put up a good fight. But Victor Hugo said: “Greater than the march of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.”
On June 18, 1971, Southwest Airlines took its first flight through that triangle on that napkin: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio.
Today, Southwest Airlines is one of the largest and most profitable airlines in the US, flying more than 100 million people a year to 66 US cities, more than 3,200 times a day.
What did they really do? They made air travel available to the masses. Southwest Airlines democratized air travel.
After what has happened with the automobile and air travel, do you think someone will one day come along and democratize space travel? If you live long enough, your vacation could be a trip to the moon or Mars.
So what does all this have to do with owning your own business?
For the general public, I think your idea of starting your own business is limited to the elite. People with titles, contacts and money. A lot of money. Or the ability to get it. At one point, that was true. But not now.
The Internet changed the way we do business forever. Now it is possible to have your business running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can even do business virtually anywhere in the world and from anywhere in the world.
While today’s technology, particularly the Internet, has made many things possible, it can still be expensive to run a business, even an online business. In any business, there are so many aspects and associated costs. An internet based business is no different. So even an internet business can be as expensive, risky, difficult and stressful as a traditional and conventional business.
Unless you can find a business model that combines the unique advantages of the Internet, affiliate programs, and franchising. And it makes it all accessible to the masses, not just the elite or the rich.
The hard work is done, free enterprise has been democratized.
We want to keep free enterprise alive by building an army of business owners. Within the masses of humanity, there are entrepreneurs who have yet to become successful or even start their own business due to lack of money, training or support.
You might be one of those people who thought you would never be able to own your own business. Just like there used to be people who thought they could never own a car or afford to travel by plane. But technology, Ford and Southwest Airlines changed things. They democratized things that were previously only accessible to a privileged few.
Now you can be part of history. Maybe not because of the history of the world, but how about just your family? your legacy? There are places a horse and buggy can’t take you. You’re going to need a car or a plane. Or own business. What’s stopping you? Free enterprise has been democratized.