Full transcript
0:00In 1945, Japan [music] stood surrounded
0:03by nothing but smoke, ashes, and the
0:05signs of destruction. One man stood
0:08empty-handed on the ruins of his
0:09factory. First, American bombs had
0:12reduced [music] it to rubble. Then, a
0:15devastating earthquake had finished the
0:16destruction. He had no money left, and
0:19he had no support. But there was
0:21something in his eyes. A dangerous
0:24obsession. An obsession that perhaps
0:26bordered on madness. From a pile of
0:29garbage, he picked up a small, rusted
0:31engine. It was an engine the military
0:34had thrown [music] away as useless
0:35scrap. The world was laughing at him.
0:38But inside his mind, a [music] plan was
0:40already taking shape. A plan that would
0:42eventually shake the entire world of
0:44automobiles.
0:46Could this piece of scrap tied to a
0:48bicycle really become the foundation of
0:50a global empire? Or was it simply the
0:52final failed attempt of a defeated
0:54engineer?
0:55Welcome to Morvex TV.
0:58This story begins in Kamio, a tiny and
1:01unknown village in Japan's Shizuoka
1:03Prefecture. The year was 1906. In the
1:06home of a poor blacksmith named Guihei
1:08[music] Honda, a son was born. His name
1:11was Soyro. Soro's mother, Mika, was a
1:15very hardworking woman who worked at
1:16home weaving [music] cloth. The Honda
1:18family was so poor that several of their
1:20children died in childhood because of
1:22malnutrition and illnesses. So was
1:25[music] the eldest of nine siblings.
1:28Soro's childhood was not spent with
1:30toys. It was spent among the sparks of
1:32his father's forge. His father, Guihei,
1:36was a skilled craftsman. When bicycles
1:38began arriving in Japan, Guihei started
1:40buying old [music] and broken bicycles
1:42and repairing them. Instead of going to
1:45school, Soiro preferred watching his
1:47father hammer iron and put bicycle
1:49wheels together. He had almost no
1:51interest in his studies. [music] His
1:53report cards were always poor, but he
1:55had a remarkable eye. He could
1:57understand the parts inside machines
1:59without even taking them apart. Then
2:01[music] in 1914, when Soyro was only 8
2:04years old, something happened that lit a
2:07fire inside [music] him. For the first
2:09time, a Ford Model T appeared on the
2:11dirt road of his village. To the people
2:13of that time, [music] it was a
2:15frightening and strange machine. But to
2:18Soy Cairo, it was a miracle. He ran
2:21after that car for so long that his feet
2:23became covered in blood. [music] When
2:25the car stopped, Soy Chairo lay
2:27underneath it. He wanted to see how it
2:29worked. After the car left, he [music]
2:32noticed drops of oil that had fallen
2:33onto the road. He rubbed the oil onto
2:36his palm and smelled it. He later
2:38[music] wrote, "That smell of oil was
2:40the most fragrant scent of my life."
2:42Another important event happened when he
2:44heard that an air show was going to take
2:46place [music] nearly 20 m away. He had
2:48no way to get there and he had no money.
2:51[music] So he took his father's bicycle
2:53and traveled 20 m. When he arrived, he
2:56did not have enough money for a ticket.
2:58So he climbed [music] a tall tree and
3:00for hours he watched the airplane flying
3:03across the sky. That day he made a
3:05promise. He would build not only
3:07machines that traveled on the ground,
3:09but machines that could cut through the
3:11sky. By the time Soiro reached the age
3:13of 15, [music] he understood that his
3:15future was not in this small village.
3:18With his father's permission and a few
3:20coins in his pocket, he set out for
3:22Tokyo, the capital of Japan. He did not
3:25know what was waiting for him in the
3:26crowded streets of Tokyo. His fate was
3:29waiting there to put him to the test. On
3:31a cold morning in 1922, 15-year-old
3:34Sochiro stood outside the art Shokai
3:36workshop in Tokyo's Yushima district. At
3:39the time, it was Tokyo's most famous
3:41auto repair shop. Soro<unk>'s heart was
3:43racing. He thought that from this day
3:46on, he would finally work with car
3:48engines and understand their [music]
3:49mechanical parts. But the moment he
3:51entered, the owner, Yuzo Sakabara,
3:54looked at him and gave him [music] a job
3:56Soiro had never imagined. He was not
3:58hired to repair engines. Instead, he was
4:02asked to carry and look after the
4:03owner's small [music] child tied to his
4:05back. For several months, Soyro swept
4:08the workshop floors, played with the
4:10owner's child, and helped prepare food
4:12for the other workers [music] at night.
4:13During Tokyo's winters, when his fingers
4:16became numb from the cold, he felt that
4:18his dream [music] might be falling
4:19apart. His fellow workers made fun of
4:22him. But Soyro had an unusual [music]
4:24patience. Even with the child tied to
4:27his back, he would stand [music] at a
4:29distance and watch the senior mechanics
4:31at work. He recorded every turn of every
4:33screw and every sound of every engine in
4:36his mind. Then came September 1st, 1923.
4:41It was a dark day. It was afternoon when
4:43the great Kanto earthquake reduced Tokyo
4:45to rubble. Buildings were collapsing all
4:48around them and devastating fires were
4:50spreading. All the workshop employees
4:53ran to save their lives. But Soy Cairo
4:56stayed behind. He saw three extremely
4:58expensive and historic cars standing
5:00inside [music] the workshop. Without
5:02caring about his own life, he pulled the
5:04cars out one by one through the flames.
5:07When the owner returned and saw his car
5:09safe, tears came to his eyes. That day,
5:12Soiro<unk>'s fate changed. Sakibara
5:15promoted him from [music] a nanny to an
5:17apprentice mechanic. Soro<unk>'s
5:19abilities grew so quickly that he began
5:21doing more than repairs. He started
5:23creating new things. At that time, a
5:26craze for racing [music] was beginning
5:27to grow in Japan. In 1924, his owner
5:30decided to build a race car. So, Chairo
5:33fitted a Curtis Wright airplane engine
5:35into the car. It was the first major
5:37engineering achievement of his life.
5:39[music] When the car entered the
5:40racetrack, its speed stunned everyone.
5:43So, Chiro himself took part in the race
5:45as a mechanic, and they [music] won. In
5:481928 when Soiro was 22 years old, his
5:52owner considered him capable enough to
5:53send him to Hamamatsu to open a new
5:55branch of art shokai. There he was the
5:58only master. His workshop became so
6:00famous that [music] people began saying
6:03if a car cannot be repaired anywhere,
6:05take it to Honda. Around this time he
6:07met Sachi. She was an educated and
6:10intelligent woman. In 1935 they [music]
6:12married. Sachi was not only his wife,
6:15she became his greatest adviser. Soro
6:18would often become so lost in his work
6:20that he even forgot to eat. And Sachi
6:22was the one who managed his business
6:24accounts and their home. But something
6:26else was taking shape [music] in Soiro's
6:28mind. He saw that there was a limit to
6:30repairing things. He wanted to create
6:32something of his own, something that
6:33could be sold in the millions. He
6:36decided to manufacture piston rings. And
6:38he created his new company, Toky. But
6:41the darkest period of his life was about
6:43to begin. He invested all of [music] his
6:45savings into the project. He
6:47manufactured thousands of piston rings
6:49and sent samples to Toyota. After
6:51waiting for several days, the answer
6:54came rejected. Toyota's engineers said
6:57that his rings did not have the quality
6:59required for a car. So was left with
7:01nothing. He had no money left and no
7:05resources. [music]
7:06His situation became so desperate that
7:08he had to sell his wife Sachi's gold
7:10jewelry one piece at a time. He used the
7:13money to pay his workers and continue
7:15his research. After Toyota rejected his
7:18piston rings, Soyurro Honda had become
7:20like a living corpse. But there was a
7:23strange stubbornness inside him. He had
7:25realized something. He had skill. But he
7:29did not have science. At the age of 30,
7:31when most people were thinking about
7:33settling down, Soyurro became a student.
7:36He enrolled at Hamamatsu Industrial High
7:38School. Imagine it. a workshop [music]
7:41owner with employees of his own now
7:43sitting on a bench beside 18 and
7:4519year-old boys. He would often argue
7:47with his professors. I don't want a
7:50degree. Just tell me why my iron keeps
7:52breaking. Meanwhile, things at home had
7:55become extremely difficult. So had no
7:58money to buy new machinery. His wife
8:00[music] Sachi watched as her husband sat
8:02beside the furnace day and night,
8:04working almost like a madman. One day,
8:07Sachi quietly brought the last remaining
8:09jewelry from their marriage and placed
8:11it in Sochiro's hand. Tears came to
8:14Soiro<unk>'s eyes, but he put that money
8:17straight into his research. After 2
8:19years of intense work, he created a
8:21piston ring that surpassed even Toyota's
8:23standards. Toyota gave him a major
8:25order. So's fortunes were finally about
8:28to change when the clouds of the Second
8:30World War began to cover the world.
8:32During the war, [music] the Japanese
8:34government forced all factories to
8:36produce military equipment. Soro<unk>'s
8:38factory could not [music] escape it
8:40either. In 1944, American B29 bomber
8:43aircraft attacked Hamamatsu. So watched
8:46the work of his life [music] disappear
8:48into smoke before his own eyes. The
8:50bombs destroyed part of his factory. And
8:52before he could recover from that shock
8:55in [music] 1945, a devastating Nongai
8:58earthquake struck Japan. The earthquake
9:00turned [music] what remained of his
9:02factory into a pile of rubble. Soro had
9:04nothing left. He sold the remaining
9:06rubble of his company to Toyota for just
9:08450,000 [music]
9:10yen. Japan had lost the war. Hunger was
9:13[music] everywhere. There was such a
9:15severe shortage of oil that people had
9:17almost nothing to travel with. So stayed
9:20at home for an entire year. People
9:22thought Honda was finished. He would
9:24often sit beneath the orange tree
9:25outside his home [music] staring at the
9:27ashes. But one evening, as he was
9:30walking through a pile of scrap, he
9:32found a small 50cc engine. It had been
9:35used during the war to power military
9:37wireless radios, something sparked
9:39inside Soro's mind. He brought the
9:41engine home. He had no iron to make
9:43[music] a fuel tank. So, he took a
9:45rubber hot water bottle from his wife's
9:47kitchen, turned it into a fuel tank, and
9:49attached it to a bicycle. Then, he
9:51started the engine, and it made a
9:53strange sound. Bada bada bada. It was
9:56the sound of Japan's future. So rode the
9:59bicycle and [music] placed his wife
10:01Sachi on the back. Sachi thought it
10:03might be very dangerous. But when they
10:05raced down the road [music] without
10:07pedaling, the neighbors came running out
10:09of their homes. Everyone wanted that
10:11[music] same Bata Bata bicycle. So
10:13understood. This was his last hope. On
10:17September 24th, 1948, he founded the
10:20Honda Motor Company. But the problem was
10:22the same as before. [music] Money. He
10:25did not have a factory capable of
10:27producing enough engines. So, he took a
10:29risk that had never been taken before in
10:30history. In front of Soiro, Honda lay a
10:33pile of 18,000 letters. He could barely
10:36afford enough money to buy all the
10:38stamps. In that letter, he [music]
10:40wrote, "I have built an engine that will
10:42give your bicycles wings. The people of
10:44[music] Japan do not need feet to move
10:46forward. They need wheels. If you help
10:48me today, together we will change the
10:50map of Japan's roads." This was not a
10:53business proposal. It was the cry of a
10:55stubborn engineer from a defeated
10:56[music] country. For weeks, there was no
10:59response. Every day, Soiro<unk>'s wife,
11:02Sachi, waited for the postman. Then,
11:05[music] one day, a miracle happened. One
11:08letter arrived, then 10, and then
11:10hundreds. Nearly 5,000 bicycle shop
11:13owners trusted Soiro [music] and sent
11:15him money. With that money, Honda began
11:18production of the Model A. [music] It
11:19was simply an engine that could be
11:20attached to a bicycle. But so was not
11:24satisfied with [music] that. He wanted
11:25to build a real motorcycle. In 1949, he
11:29developed the Model D. When it was first
11:31completed and stood inside the workshop,
11:34one of Soiro<unk>'s employees was so
11:36impressed that his [music] eyes filled
11:37with tears. He said, "Master, this is
11:40like a dream." So smiled and said, "Then
11:43from today, its name will be dream." But
11:46one enormous problem still remained.
11:49Soyurro was a brilliant [music]
11:50engineer, but he was a terrible
11:53businessman. He hated dealing with money
11:55and accounts. The company had plenty of
11:57orders, yet it was on the verge of
11:59bankruptcy. [music]
12:00So kept spending all the money on new
12:03machines. And this is where the second
12:05most important person in the story
12:06entered. Teo Fujisawa. [music] The two
12:09men met in August 1949. Fujisawa was a
12:12smart businessman who wore clean white
12:15suits. Soro, meanwhile, wore clothes
12:18covered in oil. Between the two, an
12:20agreement was made that would become an
12:22example in corporate history. Fujisawa
12:24said, "I will not [music] tell you how
12:26to build the machine, and you will not
12:28tell me how to sell it." So shook his
12:31hand and said, "Agreed." Fujasawa
12:34dreamed of making Honda the biggest
12:35[music] company in the world. [snorts]
12:37He told Soyurro that they needed a
12:39motorcycle that every person in Japan
12:40could ride, whether it was a milkman, a
12:43postman, or a woman. So accepted the
12:46challenge. He began working on the Super
12:49Cub. Meanwhile, Soyurro's family life
12:51was also going through its own
12:52struggles. His son, Hiroshi Honda, saw
12:56very little of his father. Soro would
12:58sometimes sleep inside the factory for
13:00weeks at a time. Sachi would tell their
13:02children, "Your father is weaving a
13:05dream for Japan. Do not disturb him."
13:08Then in 1958, the Super Cub was
13:11launched, and the world was astonished.
13:14It had plastic covers that prevented oil
13:16splashes from getting onto clothes. Its
13:18gear system was so simple that anyone
13:20[music] could ride it. But Fujisawa said
13:22something unexpected. Soyro, why only
13:25Japan? We should go to America. At that
13:29time in America, a motorcycle meant
13:31Harley-Davidson. Big noisy machines and
13:35the bad boys who rode them. What could
13:37Honda's tiny Super Cub possibly do
13:39there? So's friends said it would be
13:41suicide. The year was 1959.
13:45In Los Angeles, [music]
13:46a small team of Japanese engineers stood
13:48on America's wide roads. In front of
13:51them were small Super Cub motorcycles.
13:53Americans looked [music] at them and
13:55laughed, thinking they were toys. At
13:57that time, in America, being a
14:00motorcycle rider meant [music] something
14:01very different. It meant dangerous
14:03gangsters wearing black leather jackets.
14:06Kihachiro Kawashima, Honda's American
14:08representative, called Fujisawa.
14:11No one here is buying our motorcycles.
14:14But Fujisawa made a marketing move that
14:16would change history. He launched an
14:18advertisement. [music] You meet the
14:20nicest people on a Honda. The images
14:22showed a mother taking her child to
14:24school, a student heading to the
14:26library, [music] and an elderly person
14:27going out to buy vegetables. With one
14:30idea, the motorcycle was transformed
14:33from a gangster's ride into an everyday
14:35necessity for ordinary [music] people.
14:37Honda spread across America like
14:39wildfire. But Soiro's mind was still
14:42somewhere else. He wanted the world's
14:44greatest [music] engineers to respect
14:45his engines. So he announced that Honda
14:47would compete in the aisle of mant race.
14:50[music] It was considered one of the
14:51most dangerous races in the world. A
14:54small mistake could [music] mean death.
14:56When Soiro first arrived there with his
14:58team, European companies mocked them.
15:00[music] In the 1959 race, Honda was
15:03defeated badly. Their engines exploded
15:06before they could even finish the race.
15:07Soy Cairo returned to Japan. But he did
15:10not break. He locked his engineers
15:12inside the workshop. And with a wrench
15:15in his own hand, he worked on the
15:16machines day and night. [music] He often
15:19said, "The racetrack is my laboratory."
15:22Then in 1961, Honda [music] achieved
15:24something that had never happened before
15:26in racing history. They won the first
15:28five positions [music] in both the 125cc
15:31and 250cc categories. The world was
15:35stunned. Honda was no longer just a
15:37[music] Japanese brand. It was now a
15:39world champion. In the middle of this
15:41success, a major turning point came in
15:44Soiro's family. His eldest son, Hiroshi
15:47Honda, had the same intense [music]
15:50passion for machines as his father. He
15:52wanted to work for the company. He was a
15:54capable engineer. But Soiro made a
15:57decision that shocked everyone. He had a
15:59rule written into the company's
16:00policies. No member of the Honda family
16:03will ever become the company's CEO or a
16:05senior executive. Soro believed that if
16:08his son ran the company, the other
16:09employees would feel that they could
16:11never reach the top [music] because they
16:12were not a Honda. He wanted Honda to be
16:15a democratic company. He told Hiitoshi,
16:18"If you are truly capable, [music] build
16:20an identity of your own." Hiroshi
16:22listened to his father. He started his
16:24own company, Mugan. It remains famous
16:27around the world for racing engines. It
16:29was the greatest [music] example of
16:31Soyro's character. For him, the company
16:33was even bigger than his family. Now,
16:35Soyuro chose his next challenge, cars.
16:39At the beginning of the 1960s, Soyro
16:42Honda's name had become a storm in the
16:44world of motorcycles. But there was
16:46still one thorn in his mind. [music] He
16:48wanted to build cars. Japan's powerful
16:51government organization, MITI, the
16:53Ministry [music] of International Trade
16:55and Industry was preparing to issue a
16:57decree. Under it, only three major
17:00companies in Japan would be allowed to
17:01build cars. Toyota, Nissan, and Isuzu.
17:06The government believed [music] that
17:07having too many small companies would
17:08weaken Japan's economy. When Soy Cairo
17:11heard about this, he exploded with
17:13[music] anger. He slammed his fist on
17:15the desk in his office. No government
17:17can tell me what I can build. He ordered
17:19his engineers to work day and night. His
17:22goal was simple. [music] Honda's car had
17:24to be on the road before the law was
17:26passed. In 1963, Honda launched its
17:29first car, the T360,
17:32a small pickup truck. It had a 360 C
17:35engine, but this was no ordinary engine.
17:38It was more [music] like the engine of a
17:40sports car. It could reach 9,000
17:42revolutions per minute. Soon after that,
17:45Honda launched the S500, a sports car.
17:48It was so small and so fast that people
17:51were stunned when they saw it. Honda had
17:53proven that it had entered the world of
17:55cars. And now, no one could stop it. But
17:59Soiro did not want his cars to simply
18:01drive on roads. He wanted them to fly
18:03around racing tracks. In 1964, he
18:07announced that Honda would enter the
18:08[music] world's most prestigious race,
18:10Formula 1. The Japanese media wrote, "So
18:14Honda is determined to destroy his own
18:16company. Formula 1 was dominated by
18:18giants like Ferrari and Lotus. Honda's
18:21first Formula 1 racing car [music] was
18:23the RA271.
18:25In the beginning, its engines would
18:27overheat and fail." But Soiro was not
18:30someone who gave up. He told his team,
18:32"If we do not win, we will learn." And
18:36[music] then in 1965, the historic
18:39moment arrived. Honda's RA272 [music]
18:42won the Mexican Grand Prix, and it shook
18:45the entire world. It was the first
18:48Formula 1 victory [music] for any
18:50Japanese company. The year was 1970. For
18:53Honda, [music] it was a turning point
18:55when the company's entire future was at
18:57stake. In America, [music] the Clean Air
18:59Act had been passed. It was also known
19:01as the Musky Act. The law had kept
19:04automobile manufacturers around the
19:06world awake at night. The regulation was
19:08so strict that by 1975, vehicle
19:11pollution had to be reduced by 90%.
19:14Companies worth billions, including
19:16Ford, Chrysler, [music] and General
19:18Motors threw up their hands. They said
19:20such technology did not even exist in
19:23the world yet. General Motors then CEO
19:25[music] Richard Gerenberg mocked Honda
19:28at a press conference. I have seen that
19:30a small Japanese company which only
19:32makes motorcycles is saying that they
19:34have a solution. Perhaps they can put
19:36this technology on their little toy
19:38engines but it will never work on our
19:40large American cars. When the news
19:43reached Soyuro Honda, his face turned
19:46red with anger. He gathered his
19:48engineers and he thundered. They have
19:51insulted not only Honda but Japanese
19:54engineering. We will show them how
19:56engines are built. So Akiro took a step
19:58that had never been seen before in the
20:00corporate world. He took money from his
20:02own pocket and bought an American
20:04Chevrolet Impala. It had a massive V8
20:07engine. He had the car shipped directly
20:09from America to his laboratory in Japan.
20:11[music] Soro and his team of engineers
20:14went for weeks without proper sleep.
20:16They took apart the engine of that
20:17American car and fitted Honda's new CVCC
20:21or compound vortex controlled combustion
20:23technology onto it. The strength of this
20:26technology was that it burned the fuel
20:28in two stages [music] with great
20:29precision. This reduced the smoke
20:31automatically and it eliminated [music]
20:33the need for an expensive catalytic
20:35converter. So sent the car back to
20:38America and asked the Environmental
20:40Protection Agency, the [music] EPA, to
20:42test it. When the results came in,
20:45American officials were stunned. [music]
20:47The large American car fitted with
20:48Honda's engine had passed the test
20:50without any problems. After this victory
20:53in [music] 1972, Honda launched its most
20:56famous car, the Honda Civic. The car
20:59[music] was not only beautiful, it also
21:01consumed very little fuel. Then in 1973,
21:05[music] the world was hit by an oil
21:07crisis. Fuel prices soared. American
21:10people began abandoning their large cars
21:12and lining up for the Honda Civic.
21:15Overnight, Honda became one of the most
21:17respected car companies in the world.
21:19But behind this extraordinary success
21:21was a painful truth.
21:23Soro Honda was so consumed by his work
21:26that he could hardly give any time to
21:28his family. His wife Sachi once said in
21:32an interview, "My husband loves his
21:34machines more than he loves me." The
21:37success of the Honda Civic convinced
21:38[music] Soy Cairo that he could build
21:40the best car in the world. But by the
21:42middle of the 1970s, he realized that
21:45people needed something different, a car
21:47slightly larger than the Civic, more
21:49comfortable and better suited for long
21:52journeys. That idea gave birth to the
21:54Honda Accord. It was launched in 1976.
21:58The Accord not only broke sales records,
22:00it established Honda as a luxury brand.
22:03But during this period, a [music] major
22:05technological battle was taking place
22:07inside the company. Soro Honda had a
22:09deep love for air cooled engines. His
22:12motorcycles had been powered by this
22:13technology. But Honda's young engineers
22:16believed that water cooled engines would
22:18be more successful for cars. So was so
22:21determined that he refused to listen to
22:23anyone. He said, "If you will not listen
22:26to me, then I will leave the company."
22:28That was when Tiko Fujisawa stepped in.
22:31He explained to Soiro with great care,
22:33[music] "So, you are a great engineer,
22:37but these young men are the engineers of
22:39the future. If you suppress their ideas,
22:42Honda will [music] never move forward."
22:43So realized his mistake, he not only
22:46allowed water cooled engines, he also
22:48apologized to his engineers. That was
22:51the [music] moment So realized that his
22:53time was coming to an end, he understood
22:55that it was time to hand the leadership
22:57over to the next generation. Meanwhile,
22:59Honda took another bold step. In 1982,
23:02[music]
23:03Honda became the first Japanese company
23:05to build a factory in America. They
23:08established the plant in Mary'sville,
23:09[music]
23:10Ohio. Americans believed that a Japanese
23:12company would not be able to work with
23:14American workers. But Honda showed that
23:16its way of working was completely
23:18different. So, Chairo himself traveled
23:20to America and sat on the factory floor
23:22with the [music] workers and ate with
23:24them. He said, "There is no owner or
23:26servant here. We are all [music]
23:28partners in Honda's dream. In October
23:301973, as Honda celebrated its 25th
23:33anniversary, Soy Chiro Honda and Teo
23:36[music] Fujisawa made an announcement
23:38that shocked everyone. They decided to
23:40retire together. In his farewell speech,
23:42[music] Soy Chiro said, "I wanted to
23:44build a company that would be known not
23:46by my name, [music] but by its work.
23:48From today, Honda is not mine. It is
23:51yours."
23:52Staying true to his beliefs, he did not
23:55make his son Hiroshi the next owner of
23:57the company. He said, "Dynasty [music]
23:59takes a company toward the grave, but
24:01ability takes it toward the sky." His
24:04son, Hiatoshi, who is now [music] the
24:05owner of Muggan Motorsports, later said,
24:08"My father was strict with me, [music]
24:10but that same strictness made me an
24:12independent and successful person."
24:14After retirement, Soyro and his wife
24:16Sachi devoted their lives to serving
24:18people. Soyachiro founded the Honda
24:20Foundation, which worked on the
24:21environment [music] and technology. But
24:23he never truly stayed away from cars. He
24:26would often take his old car and drive
24:28to Honda showrooms in remote parts of
24:29Japan. He would go to the mechanics,
24:32hold their oil covered hands, and say,
24:34"Thank [music] you, my friend." Honda's
24:37name is alive because of your hard work.
24:40Sometimes young mechanics did not even
24:42recognize that this was such an
24:44important man from around the world. On
24:46the morning of August 5th, 1991, at the
24:49age of 84, Soiro Honda took his final
24:52breath in a hospital. His loyal wife,
24:55Sachi, was sitting beside his head. As
24:58soon as news of his death spread, the
25:00machines and factories across Japan were
25:02stopped for one minute. Millions of
25:05people came out onto the streets. But
25:07according to Soiro<unk>'s wishes, his
25:09funeral was kept very simple. He had
25:11said, "After I am gone, do not [music]
25:13hold a grand celebration. Instead,
25:16everyone should work twice as hard at
25:18their jobs." But the story [music] does
25:20not end here. That childhood dream of
25:23Soy Chairos, the dream that began when
25:25he rode his [music] bicycle 20 m just to
25:27watch an airplane, was still alive in
25:30the hearts of Honda's engineers. 12
25:32years after Soy Cairo's death in 2003,
25:35[music] Honda successfully flew its
25:37first aircraft, the Honda Jet. The
25:39aircraft had a remarkably [music] unique
25:41design. Its engines were mounted above
25:44the wings. It was an idea that reflected
25:46Soyurro's [music]
25:47power of dreams. Today, Honda is the
25:50world's largest engine manufacturer.
25:52Whether it is small lawnmowers,
25:54motorcycles, cars, or aircraft flying
25:57through the sky. So Honda's passion
25:59[music] can be felt everywhere. The
26:01lesson is simple. Soyro Honda's life
26:04teaches [music] us that failure is only
26:05an opportunity to begin again. but this
26:08time with greater understanding. He
26:11proved [music] that a dream remains only
26:13a dream until you begin to fight for it.
26:16From the ashes of Japan to [music]
26:17ruling the world, this journey remains
26:20one of the greatest stories of human
26:22determination and the triumph of dreams.
26:24If you enjoyed this story, don't forget
26:26to subscribe to the channel because the
26:29next story is going to be even more
26:31interesting. Thank you.