Today’s Chapter is based on the book “Honda: The Man and His Machines” by Sol W. Sanders.
Soichiro Honda was a Japanese engineer and industrialist who founded Honda Motor Company in 1948, building it from small motorized bicycles into a global manufacturer of motorcycles and cars. A former mechanic and prolific inventor, he became known for technical innovation, racing ambition, and resilient entrepreneurship after rebuilding from wartime losses.
Here’s what I learned:
Failure
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
— Thomas Edison
Soichiro Honda always treated failure as a necessity to any serious attempt to make something new. This acknowledgment of failure as the predominant experience in any meaningful endeavour reveals Honda’s understanding of the creative process. He did not view failure as a deviation from success but as its very foundation.
He mentions that “Many people dream of and hope for success. To me, success can be achieved only through repeated failure and introspection. In fact, success represents one percent of your work which results only from the ninety-nine percent that is called failure. I believe your final success can only be achieved if you face challenges with this kind of pioneer spirit and repeatedly use the three tools of failure, introspection and courage.”
This philosophy of Soichiro Honda can be easily illustrated throughout his career at Honda. When he first tried to produce piston rings for Toyota during the war years, the quality was so poor that only three out of fifty randomly tested rings met the standard. While he could have just given up after such failure, he decided to keep the operation alive by selling lower-grade rings to smaller companies that could not afford better and to continue to innovate to make better pistons.
“When we engage in research of any kind, one thing that must not be forgotten is that research means a succession of failures, that more than 99 percent of our research is total failure.”
— Soichiro Honda
More importantly, Honda mentions the importance of not accepting mediocrity and never to commit the same mistakes twice. As he once said, “Looking back, in my work, I feel that I have made nothing but mistakes, a series of failures, a series of regrets. But I also am proud of an accomplishment. Although I made one mistake after another, my mistakes or failures were never due to the same reason. I never made the same mistake and I always tried my hardest succeeded in improving my efforts.”
In my opinion, this is one of the main reason for Honda’s success. He was systematic and deliberate to learn from every single mistake he made. While he was chasing perfection, he understood that it could only be achieved through countless missteps. By normalizing failure, he was encouraging his employees to innovate without being afraid of making mistakes.
This reminds me of Scott Adams’s career which is a perfect example of how failures can lead to success stories. As a matter of fact, Adams doesn’t just tolerate failure, he invites it and most importantly, extracts value from it. He genuinely believes that failure is a fertilizer for growth. He writes, “Failure always brings something valuable with it. I don’t let it leave until I extract that value. I have a long history of profiting from failure. My cartooning career, for example, is a direct result of failing to succeed in the corporate environment.”
Adams doesn’t believe that one shouldn’t just forget about his failures, but to repurpose them for future growth. Through a metaphor, he explains that, “If I find a cow turd on my front steps, I’m not satisfied knowing that I’ll be mentally prepared to find some future cow turd. I want to shovel that turd onto my garden and hope the cow returns every week so I never have to buy fertilizer again. Failure is a resource that can be managed.”
“I’ve long seen failure as a tool, not an outcome. I believe that viewing the world in that way can be useful for you, too.”
— Scott Adams
Before becoming the author of the famous comic Dilbert, Adams mentions that he had many failed business ideas, but that all of these adventures provided him with fundamental lessons that allowed him to become a successful cartoonist. For example, although he failed to release any of his computer game projects, it gave him a technical knowledge that would prove invaluable for his career. He writes, “All my computer game ideas failed, but in the process I learned enough about personal computers to look like a technical genius in those early days of computing—the eighties. That knowledge transferred to my day job at the bank and later to my cartooning career as well.”
As such, it is clear that for Scott Adams failure isn’t something to fear or to avoid, it should be used as a valuable input that can be used to increase your skills and insights. He writes, “I do want my failures to make me stronger, of course, but I also want to become smarter, more talented, better networked, healthier, and more energized.“ This mentality of his can be perfectly described by his desire to continue doing public speaking even when he was diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, a condition that caused him to be unable to speak normally, just so that he could an experiment. He needed to understand the pattern of his own voice under pressure, and failure was simply a possible data point.
“I needed to know why I could speak normally in some situations and not in others. Why does context matter? Is it something about my adrenaline level, or the tone of my voice, or the region of my brain that I access for memorization? If I could find the pattern, I thought it might reveal a solution to my voice problem.”
— Scott Adams
Technology as a Tool
“We often hear it said that this is a machine age. No! That is not true. This is a MAN AGE. The machines are simply tools which man has devised to help him do a better job. Take the man out of the laboratory and no inventions will be created there. Great machinery is no greater than the men who design, manufacture and use it. All machinery does is increase the productivity of man, give him more time for culture and pleasure, and release his mind for more time to think.”
— Thomas Watson
When Honda was just a little boy, it was already evident to him that engines and machines were much more compelling to him than school books. As such, it was to no one’s surprise that he later ended up becoming the founder of Honda, one of the largest automobile companies in the world. As he once said, “I think it was from that moment, even though I was a mere child, that the idea originated I would one day build a car myself. After this time, cars began to come to the village more often. And every time I heard that there was one on the street, I would run down to see it after school with much of the same exhilaration.”
That being said, despite his admiration for machines, Honda had a sound practical belief concerning the proper relationship between human beings ant the tools they create. For him, machines are merely tools and humans are the ones operating them. As he explains, “No matter how much progress and development is made in science and technology or social structure, it must not be forgotten that it is men who operate them. And this cannot be done by one person alone. It takes a heart-to-heart unity of purpose of many people if they are to become ‘masters’ who effectively operate machines and social structures and thus contribute to mankind.“
“Don’t be used by the machine, use the machine.”
— Soichiro Honda
In the same line of thought, Honda was also critical of companies that merely made technological advancement for the sake of it, without thinking about how their technology could be used as a tool to serve mankind. For Honda, the question was never simply “Can we build this?” but rather “Should we build this?” and “How will this serve people?”
As an employee of Honda once reiterated, “The basic principle of our R&D program, as Mr. Honda has often said, is that our R&D work is respect for humanity. Men desire something. Technology is something to achieve that goal. It’s not that technology is there and that’s why we make this; it’s the other way around—there is a social need, hence the technology.”
This was exactly the case with Honda’s CVCC engine, the company’s low-pollution automobile engine. It was not developed because the market was already demanding it, but because the engineers at Honda felt the social need to do so. As Soichiro Honda notes, “The first thing that I would like to touch on is that technology is a tool to serve mankind. It is always man who plays the principal role in the development and progress of society and technology and its by- products created by men are nothing more than the means and the tools for achieving a better life for men. It is a matter for regret that some people today mistake the means for the end and have the wrong idea that scientific technology itself is their goal.”
“We do not make something because the demand, the market, is there. With our technology, we can create the demand, we can create the market.”
— Soichiro Honda
This reminds me of Akio Morita’s story at Sony. Morita initially believed that by focusing on building innovative products with unique technology, Sony could become a successful company. However, when they first started producing tape recorders, they realized that their products couldn’t sell because people did not know what it was and how it could be of use for them. As such, they learned quickly that they needed to educate the market; they needed to sell their products to the potential buyer by explaining to him the value they were getting.
“I then realized that having unique technology and being able to make unique products are not enough to keep a business going. You have to sell the products, and to do that you have to show the potential buyer the real value of what you are selling. I was struck with the realization that I was going to have to be the merchandiser of our small company. We were fortunate in having a genius like Ibuka who could concentrate totally on innovative product design and production while I learned the merchandising end of the business.”
— Akio Morita
Meritocratic Approach
“An idea meritocracy requires people to do three things: 1) Put their honest thoughts on the table for everyone to see, 2) Have thoughtful disagreements where there are quality back-and-forths in which people evolve their thinking to come up with the best collective answers possible, and 3) Abide by idea-meritocratic ways of getting past the remaining disagreements (such as believability-weighted decision making).”
— Ray Dalio
While Japanese companies are often known for being traditional in terms of following a distinct hierarchy and strict protocols, Soichiro Honda’s management style can be defined as the complete opposite of the norm in Japan, it was completely meritocratic and egalitarian.
As a matter of fact, Honda wore the same white uniform as the factory workers and ate at the company cafeteria among his employees. As Sanders writes, “He would put on the spotless white uniforms that are worn by everyone in the Honda plants—and which give a feeling of egalitarianism typical of Honda’s view of what modem industry should be but also appealing to a deep feeling for equity in Japan’s otherwise casebound society.”
A young engineer working at Honda also explained that “He is a company president who is not like a company president at all. When we say that he works with his employees as one of them, we don’t mean it is just that he wears the same uniform as the others and that he acts ‘chummy.’ We aren’t referring to superficial matters. Instead what we mean is that we find Soichiro-san the kind of person with whom we can have an ‘on-the-same-level dialogue.’”
Similarly, while it was very common for Japanese men to succeed their father in their family businesses, Soichiro Honda was completely opposed to the idea of being succeeded by a family member. Sanders mentions that “Honda long ago laid down the rule that there would be no nepotism and that family members would not be drawn into the business.”
“There are cases of companies being managed exclusively by blood relations who run the companies as they want. But talents should be sought far and wide. An enterprise operated exclusively by blood relations will not grow.”
— Soichiro Honda
Furthermore, this egalitarian approach was also the way Honda decided to structure the R&D division, where young engineers were given real responsibility early. As one senior figure at Honda later explained, “Our R&D system is such that each individual is given an opportunity to do whatever he would like to do. He is free to make any proposal and take responsibility for any research he wants to do. Technological innovation cannot depend on experience alone. If you have only older, experienced engineers, ranking engineers only, you are not going to get anywhere. Younger engineers must be given more opportunity and should be treated equally with everyone given a chance to help them reach their goals.”
This reminds me of Sam Zell, who loved to be challenged by his employees and more than welcomed debates. It was important for him to create a work environment where his employee’s voice can be heard, even those in junior positions. As he explains, “Increasingly over the past twenty to thirty years, I’ve had to try to get people to not treat me like the boss. To let their guard down so ideas can flow. Don’t get me wrong. I like being the boss. I accept the responsibility and I’ve done very well with it, but I don’t want to be surrounded by sycophants. The worst thing for me would be an environment where everybody just said, “Okay, Sam, whatever you say” all the time. That would be death in an entrepreneurial environment.”
“At our core, we are a meritocracy—an environment that Bob and I cultivated in the early days. A meritocracy gives you the freedom to be yourself by eliminating superficial markers, so you are measured only by what you produce. In essence, it is an equalizer that focuses everybody on what’s important so you have the opportunity to reveal your best. Once you’ve worked in a true meritocracy, it’s very hard to settle for anything else.”
— Sam Zell
Beyond the Book
Listen to "#423 Soichiro Honda" by Founders Podcast
Read "Why You Should Practice Failure" by Farnam Street
Read "The Ingredients For Innovation" by Farnam Street
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