Perhaps many do not know who Soichiro Honda is. On the other hand, when do you mark it? Honda is mentioned, certainly there are few people in the world who have never heard of it, Soichiro is precisely the person behind this famous multinational, his story, in addition to showing that he was a good businessman, reveals him as an excellent example. of struggle and improvement.
Soichiro Honda was born into a very humble family in a small province of Japan called Komyo. The twentieth century was just beginning. When he was still very young, a car came to his village for the first time, it was a Ford and Soichiro was fascinated to see it, everything this artifact could do seemed incredible to him, then he began to dream of the idea of building his own car.
- “There is a Japanese saying that says “Hiele the candle with the strongest hand.
- “Does this mean that in life you have to follow the opportunities for which you are best prepared?Soichiro Honda?.
At the age of 15, Soichiro Honda moved to Tokyo and got a job in a workshop. He formed a good friendship with his boss and showed a great passion for work from day one. For this reason, one day the workshop owner offered to take some scattered aircraft parts and build a race car with them.
Building a car was Soichiro Honda’s golden dream. So when the boss proposed to him, he didn’t hesitate for a second. Combining industrial and artisanal techniques, it finally manages to build the first model. He made most of the pieces himself: he carved the spokes of the wooden wheels with his own hands.
Thus was born the model “Curtiss”, an extraordinary car that was immediately tested for the race. He won the Japanese championship in 1924. At the time, Soichiro Honda was just 18 years old.
Not only did he discover himself as a passionate and persevering mechanic, but he also became a racing driver, an activity in which he also achieved remarkable performance, he took the step by taking his car at a speed of 120 km/h. The brand remained in force for 20 years in Japan.
When Soichiro Honda was 21 he decided to return to his hometown, worked for 6 years as a workshop employee and was ready to take the next step. The following year, he set up his first factory, Tokai Seiki Heavy Industries. This factory manufactured auto parts and mainly built piston segments.
They say that the development of these parts has cost him a lot of effort, yet he remained motivated and managed to manufacture them with excellent quality and sell them to Toyota, an activity that allowed him to survive for many years.
During his youth, Soichiro Honda despised his studies, he used to say that “if theory encouraged creativity, all teachers would have been inventors. “Over the years, he realized that the study is a growth path, so he decided to enroll in Hamamatsu technical school. However, Honda was ejected from this facility because it refused to take the final exam because it considered it unnecessary.
Soichiro Honda witnessed two major wars and also the china-Japan conflict. After World War II, the country was completely devastated and demoralized. Honda lost everything he had built due to the bombing.
Then he made a decision: he would take a year off, he created a whisky distillery in his own home, during that year he only prepared drinks for himself and his friends, he certainly also took this time to define the course to follow, after losing everything. His reflexes must have been very incisive, because after that, he began his stage of success.
In 1946, Soichiro Honda founded a new company called Honda Technical Research Institute. The Japanese car fleet was virtually non-existent. For this reason, he devoted himself to the manufacture of motorcycles, a more economical means of transport that could be useful in the new circumstances. He managed to build a lighter and less noisy engine than usual and this was an unprecedented triumph.
In 1973 Soichiro Honda stopped working for his own company, created the “Honda Foundation” dedicated to environmental protection. As of this year, he has committed all his efforts and commitment to this work. He died in August 1991, establishing himself as the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer.