I did not write this but saw it yesterday and thought it was cool. Wanted to share it with you.

On June 16, 1903, the Ford Motor Company was established. Henry Ford was the founder. This was not his first rodeo, as he had previously operated the Henry Ford Company. He left that company and took his name with him. What became of the Henry Ford Company? They became known as the Cadillac Motor Company.

Ford’s Model T, which would number in the millions sold, required 100 board feet of wood to build. Ford despised waste. His motto was, “Reduce, reuse, and recycle.” He was also a nature-lover, an environmentalist of his time. His escape from the stress of life was camping in the great outdoors.

Frustrated by the mountains of sawdust his lumber mills created, he and his partners sought a way to utilize the scrap wood and sawdust into a useful (and profitable) product.

An idea came to him one day as he was camped with some friends in the wilds of Michigan. After his party spent a long time collecting sufficient wood for a campfire, an idea spring in Ford’s mind. Upon returning back to the lumber mill, he shared the idea with some of his partners and set to work on it.

The idea? Lumping a fistful of sawdust and cornstarch with a bit of tar to form a briquette. After charring it, it performed exactly what Ford imagined it would. He then built a charcoal briquette factory adjacent to his lumber mill where the waste from one became the fuel for the other.

A new Model T was frequently sold with a bonus bag of Ford Charcoal Briquettes, so you could drive into the woods to camp and not worry about finding campfire wood.

So know you know. Ford not only created the modern automobile industry which takes millions to work and back each workday, but he also created the weekend grilling and camping industries.

In 1951, the Ford Charcoal Briquette Company was sold. The new company was named after Ford’s real estate partner who helped him find the land to supply wood for building the early Ford automobiles- E.J. Kingsford.

Today, Kingsford Charcoal is the largest producer of charcoal briquettes in the world.

Years ago, I was selling a hotel in Nashville well before the internet, cell phones, email, and such. Back then I had to physically go to the closings if I wanted to get paid.

The closing was set for 9am, so I drove up to Nashville early that morning. When I got there the buyer was there with his attorney and my client (seller) was there with his attorney. The buyer was a good guy and a deeply religious man. We had discussed our faiths several times during the sales process.

When everyone was in the room, everyone got coffee and chatted and the two attorneys do what they usually do and that was talk about where they went to school and common people, they knew etc. By this time, it is now 9:40 that morning.  During the chatter between the attorneys, I noticed the buyer hadn’t said anything. A minute later he leaned across the table and told me that if he didn’t sign all the documents before 10am sharp we would have to reschedule the closing.

I calmly stood up and ask to speak with the seller and his attorney in the hallway. Once we were clear of the room, I told the seller and his attorney what the buyer said. I looked at the seller’s attorney and told him the buyer was represented by an attorney and to just slide the stack of documents over and let him instruct the buyer. It was now 9:45

We walked back in and the seller’s attorney did just what I had suggested. He told the buyer’s attorney of the time urgency and slid the documents over to him. The buyer started signing and 12 minutes later the deal was closed.

I felt like I needed a shower after that, but I learned a big lesson that day. When going into a meeting, always ask everyone how much time we have.  KT

Bob goes out each week to lunch with five friends. When the bill comes the waiter asked if it is one bill or split up?  Bob says to his friends, “I have had a good year so why don’t I chip in 80%.” Two of the other friends say “well, we will each pitch in 10%.” The remaining three fiends didn’t contribute anything.

This became the usual way they paid the lunch bill. One day the manager came over to the table and said, because you guys are such loyal guests, I want to give you 100 dollars in cash to split up as my way of thanking you.

After the manager leaves, Bob says well let’s split the 100 like we do when the bill is paid. I will take 80 and the other two friends will get 10 each.

The three that never contributed anything said, “hey now, wait a minute, that’s not fair.” We should all split it equally. Then the three said some bad things to Bob and called him greedy.

Bob decided he didn’t want to go to lunch any more with his ex-friends, so he didn’t show up the next week. The next week the remaining five friends all ordered lunch and when Bob still didn’t come, the three that had said bad things to Bob, asked each other, “who’s going to pay for lunch?’

Does this remind you of anything? Maybe the American tax system? KT