Just for Today List

Just for Today, I will spend more time studding.

Just for Today, I will spend my money wisely.

Just for Today, I will plan for tomorrow.

Just for Today, I will use non-vulgar terminology.

Just for Today, I will make healthier food choices.

Just for Today, I will respect those that deserve to be respected.

Just for Today, I will manage my time to accommodate for my family.

Power and Powerless

It is a great feeling to have power. Whether it is power over your employee, family, friends, or who ever. To me knowledge is power. There is not greater feeling that know something very well. Sometimes when I go to car shows older people like to argue with me on the topic of a classic car. The older guy drove these cars when he was your age, so he figures that he should know more about them then me. I on the other hand study these cars and own about 50 of them. I love to correct "know it alls", most of the time they will say something dumb and I will correct them. It is even better because I am younger then them. They may have owned one of these cars at one point in there lives, but they sure didn't know much about them. Of course it is more of a trivia based knowledge, but I still feel like I have power over them. Some times when I am traveling, I will see a car on the side of the road and ask them if I can help. Most of the time these cars are beyond roadside repair, but sometimes I can fix them. I look at it as a win win situation because the stranded people can back on the road and I feel accomplishment. I guess I feel powerful when I have the ability to help others in need. I feel powerless when I am stranded on the side of the road with no tools and nobody stopping -- don't these people believe in karma? I believe in karma. For example this winter when the roads were real bad, this truck figured he had heated tires or something went speeding by me and hit the ditch a mile down the road. If he had not passed me like an idiot, I may have stopped to help. Instead I slowed down to get his hopes up, shook my head at him and drove off. That made me feel powerful over him because I knew he needed my help and there probably wouldn't be anyone else stopping for at lease 45 minutes. I like helping people, but there is a limit. I am not about to chance wreaking my truck and freezing to help someone who has no respect for the weather conditions. He would have most liking also been unappreciative.

Ford Relies on others

One organization that really relies on each other is the Ford Motor Company. Not that I like Fords, but believe it or not Fords were once a good vehicle. Henry Ford sold his first car (model A) in 1903 for about $800. He then tried to open a factory twice, but failed. At the time vehicles were unreliable and people were skeptical on buying one. Ford built reliable vehicle, but still needed to prove it. (This is funny by the way because Fords now days are very unreliable.) Anyhow, he started building and racing his own cars, and made a name for himself. Once people had more interest in ford, he opened a new factory. Although his 3rd attempt was a success, he felt that he still needed to be more efficient. In 1913 he introduced the motorized assembly line which built cars cheaper and faster. In this assembly line, the car moved on conveyor belts and stopped in each section for the same amount of time. Each worker was assigned a specific task to be done in that time frame. For example 4 people each put 1 wheel on, 1 person installs a steering wheel, and another installs the head lamps (headlights were called head lamps at the time), and so on... This made work way more efficient, and Ford made more money which he passed on to the costumers selling Model Ts for $300 instead of $850. This also resulted in a higher demand for Ford vehicle which make Ford rely on their workers even more. In 1914, Ford introduced a $5 a day pay which was about twice the regular pay in other factories. Ford believed that the higher pay would make the workers happy, and a happy worker is more productive. Sound familiar? I think they say the same about dairy cows. Ford also believed that the pay increase would also create job loyalty. It would also make sure that the workers would come to work and be on time. This was very important because if one person was gone or even just late, it would slow down production in the whole factory. Each and every worker relied on the worker before them. The person that installs the wheel needs to rely on the person who installs the axel and also the person after him that installs the wheel nuts to hold the wheel. If the person that installs the wheel nuts was not there, the guy who installs the w heel needs to hold the wheel and install the nuts in the same time frame that he did only one job in or else production is lost. Ford had to make sure that his workers were there and productive all the time because if productivity was lost, he would have to ask more for the cars and pay the workers less money. Henry Ford was all about productivity, in fact, he painted all Model Ts black because it dried faster. Ford produced the Model T from 1908 until 1927, building 15 million cars and each car was exactly the same and only in black. Which made Henry Ford’s most famous quote; “you can have any color you like – as long as it’s black”.