Honda learned to reach goals by breaking with tradition and accepted views that stood between himself and his goals. His novel way of seeing the world owed much to his playful sense of humor. Learning early and through hard apprenticeship that unconventional ideas could work, he applied this directness to everything in his life. He showed famous disrespect for status, believing that work dignifies the workman, and that therefore work clothes and cap were equally appropriate for financial meetings or shop visits. He expected to be judged by his actions, not by the cut of his suit, and applied the same standard to his associates. Knowing himself, he knew that people of any education or background could have useful ideas.

Soichiro Honda's unconventional ways became the company's personality because he did not pursue the socially correct compromise path of consensus decision-making. He was everywhere in the flesh, checking the progress of projects, visiting production shops, helping workers assemble an engine, injecting his own views, asking questions. Honda's way was to overturn the conventional to seek ideas so simple that traditional thinkers had overlooked them. In Soichiro Honda's view, engineering was not just applied science; it was imagination made real and useful. What do you need? We'll make it.

This success was no accident. Soichiro Honda invented himself by hard trial and error, to succeed in difficult, fluid times. His company became an extension of himself, displaying his qualities, employing his methods. Honda's unconventional personality was an essential adaptation to an era of unpredictable, accelerating change, enabling the company, like the man, to make room for itself among less agile giants, to take and hold its place in history as a pioneer.

 

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