The Story of a Legend- Sochiro Honda

Sometimes some people are born who are not ordinary. They change other people or the whole world thinks. They never follow a predetermined path but rather create their own.We call them legends. Sochiro Honda was such a person. Sochiro Honda was the founder of the famous Japanese automobile company Honda  . He was a great Engineer and Industrialist who oversaw the expansion of a company manufacturing bicycle parts to one of the greatest multinational company.

His life is an inspiration as to how fight against various adversities in life and rise to the peak.

Early Life

Born on 17th November 1906 most of Honda's childhood was spent helping his blacksmith father Gihei with bicycle repair business. Even as a child Honda was greatly thrilled by the first car he saw in his village. He had a deep love for machinery and even once went to see a demonstration of airplane on his father's bicycle.

He left for Tokyo to look for work when he was 15 without any formal education. He disliked the traditional way of  education from the beginning and never tried to complete it. After staying at Tokyo for more than six years he went back to home to start his own auto shop business.

Rise of Honda Motor Co.

Like most other countries, Japan was also hit badly by the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1938, Soichiro Honda was still in school, when he started a little workshop, developing the concept of the piston ring.

He planned to sell these rings to Toyota but his first designs were rejected as it didn't meet the industrial standards. He was severely criticized and ridiculed by the Toyota engineers. But he never gave up hope.

He went back to his school and started working on the ring. He worked day and night , design and redesigned it till he has perfected it. At last after two years of continuous handwork he was able to get a contract from Toyota

These were war times .Japan was a party to the Axis powers. Japan was gearing up for war. Materials were scarce and he needed an assembly line to fulfill his contract with Toyota. But this was not enough to deter him. After working for days he created a new concrete making process which helped to him to put together his factory. But it seemed god had other plans for him. His first factory was shattered by a US bomb raid and the second plant collapsed in the infamous Mikawa Earthquake.

This was the year 1945 and times were tough Japan had just surrendered. There was a severe dearth of gasoline. People were forced to walk or use bicycle. It seemed the end of road for Honda. But again Honda was unwilling to give up.

He put together a small engine and attached it to the bicycle. This model became famous overnight among his village people and everybody demanded one. To keep up the demand and counter the shortage of materials he applied a innovative way he wrote to 18,000 bicycles shop owners and, in an inspiring letter, asked them to help him revitalize Japan. 5,000 responded and advanced him what little money they could to build his tiny bicycle engines. Unfortunately, the first models were too bulky to work well ( type A ), so he continued to develop and adapt, until finally, the small engine 'The Super Cub' became a reality and was a success ( type D ), which gave way for his " DREAM " series motorcycles

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His hard work paid off and The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan listed both the Type A and the Type D models as two of their 240 Landmarks of Japanese Automotive Technology. 

With this huge success and rising popularity he began exporting the engines to Europe and USA.

His brilliant technical and marketing innovation skills made his Honda Motor Company into a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. As the president of company he gave renowned names of motorbike world like Triumph and Harley-Davidson a run for their money. Under his leadership Honda Motor Company became the seller of best motorcycles in the world.

In the 1970s there was another gas shortage, this time in America and automotive fashion turned to small cars. But this was not yet the end of the story for Honda. Honda was quick to pick up on the trend. Experts now in small engine design, the company started making tiny cars, smaller than anyone had seen before, and rode another wave of success.

He had became so famous  People magazine placed him on their "25 Most Intriguing People of the Year" list for 1980, dubbing him "the Japanese Henry Ford."

ASME established the Soichiro Honda Medal in recognition of Mr. Honda's achievements in 1982.

In 1989 he was inducted to " Automotive Hall of Fame" of Detroit.

The Legacy

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Sochiro Honda died on August 5, 1991 of terminal liver failure.  He was posthumously appointed to the senior third rank in the order of precedence and appointed a Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun

Today, Honda Corporation employs over 100,000 people in the USA and Japan and around 180,000 people worldwide, and is one of the world's largest automobile companies. Honda started from scratch. He worked hard till his  death and left behind a legacy of a company worth US  $105 Billion which serves across the world. Honda Motor co. has produced 4,110,000 vehicles as of now and has expanded its business to other sectors like aviation, solar power, racing cars, power equipment, luxury vehicles, robotics and the list goes on.

The Message

A wise man once said, " When you feel like giving up remember remember why you held on for so long ". 

Honda succeeded because one man made a truly committed decision, acted upon it, and made adjustments on a continuous basis. Whenever odds were not in his favor. He showed incredible patience bided his time. Adapted and tried to survive. Failure was simply not considered a possibility. His lifetime  taught us that hard work really is the key to success.

                                     Many People dream about Success for me Success is to overcome permanent failures