PROJECT IN HBO

Successful Stories of
Influential Personalities in
the World
MEMBERS:
Eren Jane Gamazon
Justine Infortuna
Flordelyn Inopiquez
Kimberly Joaquin
Gladys Quimpo
Rezelita Solayao

HENRY FORD
July 30, 1863- April 7, 1947
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

Some businessmen creative innovative products. Others create massive

fortunes. Very few create an entire system of production, an entire industry, and
one of the world's biggest companies, all within the same time period. Henry Ford,
one of the world's most important industrialists, is one of the few that have done
such a thing. He was the founder of the Ford Motors Company and the one who had
brought a revolution in automobile industry. He also played a major role in the
development of the assembly line techinique for mass production.
Born in 1863 in a small township that's now part of Detroit, Michigan, Henry
Ford's early life was spent on a small rural farm. With a farmer for a father and a
housewife for a mother, Ford's earliest years were spent surrounded by machinery.
Impressed by farm equipment but uninterested in farm work as a career, he began
training as a machinist in his late teens at a business in Detroit.
Ford was known as a talented repairman, having assembled and repaired
watches during his early childhood years. His talents were soon put to the test as an
engineer at the Edison Company, one of the city's pioneering mechanical
corporations. He invested heavily in the company's projects, and in his own too,
eventually creating the Ford Quadricycle, an invention that would contribute heavily
to his later engineering feats designing motorcars.
After a series of investments with the Dodge brothers a family that would
later go on to create its own automobiles Ford created a racing car. With almost
one-hundred horsepower, it was one of the fastest vehicles of its generation, turning
heads as well as dominating on the track. Seeing the potential of automobiles, Ford
set out to create an inexpensive car for the American 'Everyman.'

Seeing that the consumer-focused automobiles of his day were cumbersome and difficult
to drive, Ford set out to create a car that anyone, given a few minutes of explanation, could
control. One of his first creations, and one of his greatest successes, was the Model T.
Inexpensive yet high quality, it was an immediate hit with the middle class of America, and sold
in immense quantities.
To meet such high demand, and to stick with the model's low price point, Ford set out to
create an innovative system of production. His production line system was an incredible
development in its day, allowing Ford's workers to produce cars much more quickly than before.
His company made more cars than all others combined, all the while paying its workers higher
wages than competitors.
Ford has, as any automotive enthusiast will know, gone on to become one of the world's
biggest and most successful car manufacturers. Many of the innovations that Henry Ford
developed are normal within the engineering world today, including the semi-automated
production line and higher-than-normal wages for engineers. His contributions to engineering
are immense and widely celebrated.
"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself." - Henry Ford
Despite occasional criticisms due to his anti-Semitism and controversial 'social
monitoring' tests for employees, Ford remains an icon of the industrial era and one of the
business world's most valuable figures. A hard-working, intelligent, and street smart visionary,
his long-lasting success proves that a great vision can result in hundreds of years of results.

NELSON MANDELA
July 18, 1918- December 5, 2013
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
The first black president of South Africa and a symbol of global peacemaking.
Nelson Mandela was born Rolihlahla Mandela on July 18, 1918, in the tiny village of
Mvezo, on the banks of the Mbashe River in Transkei, South Africa. "Rolihlahla" in
the Xhosa language literally means "pulling the branch of a tree," but more
commonly translates as "troublemaker."
When Mandela was 9 years old, his father died of lung disease, causing his
life to change dramatically. He was adopted by Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the
acting regent of the Thembu people.
He later learned to develop an interest in African history, from elder chiefs
who came to the Great Palace on official business. He learned how the African
people had lived in relative peace until the coming of the white people. According to
the elders, the children of South Africa had previously lived as brothers, but white
men had shattered this fellowship. While black men shared their land, air and water
with whites, white men took all of these things for themselves.
In 1939, Mandela enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare, the only
residential center of higher learning for blacks in South Africa at the time and was
considered as an equivalent of University of Oxford or Harvard University. In 1942,

he became actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African

National Congress. For 20 years, Mandela directed peaceful, nonviolent acts of
defiance against the South African government and its racist policies, including the
1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. He founded the law
firm Mandela and Tambo, partnering with Oliver Tambo, a brilliant student he'd met
while attending Fort Hare. The law firm provided free and low-cost legal counsel to
unrepresented blacks.
In 1961, Mandela, who was formerly committed to nonviolent protest, began
to believe that armed struggle was the only way to achieve change. He
subsequently co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, also known as MK, an armed offshoot
of the ANC dedicated to sabotage and guerilla war tactics to end apartheid. In 1961,
Mandela orchestrated a three-day national workers' strike. He was arrested for
leading the strike the following year, and was sentenced to five years in prison. In
1963, Mandela was brought to trial again. This time, he and 10 other ANC leaders
were sentenced to life imprisonment for political offenses, including sabotage. Upon
his release from prison, Nelson Mandela immediately urged foreign powers not to
reduce their pressure on the South African government for constitutional reform.
In 1991, Mandela was elected president of the African National Congress, with
lifelong friend and colleague Oliver Tambo serving as national chairperson. Mandela
continued to negotiate with President F.W. de Klerk toward the country's first
multiracial elections. White South Africans were willing to share power, but many
black South Africans wanted a complete transfer of power. The negotiations were
often strained and news of violent eruptions, including the assassination of ANC
leader Chris Hani, continued throughout the country. Mandela had to keep a delicate
balance of political pressure and intense negotiations amid the demonstrations and
armed resistance.In 1993, Mandela and President de Klerk were jointly awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize for their work toward dismantling apartheid.
On December 5, 2013, at the age of 95, Nelson Mandela died at his home in
Johannesburg, South Africa. Zuma released a statement later that day, in which he
spoke to Mandela's legacy: "Wherever we are in the country, wherever we are in the
world, let us reaffirm his vision of a society ... in which none is exploited, oppressed
or dispossessed by another," he said. For decades to come, Nelson Mandela will
continue to be a source of inspiration for civil rights activists worldwide.
Mr. Mandela believed in the POWER of FORGIVENESS for moving forward,
healing, and nation-building. Due to this mindset he is widely viewed the father of
the nation and the founding father of democracy within South Africa. He has
been likened to other great leaders including Abraham Lincoln and Mahatma
Gandhi. His life has been celebrated on film, in song, through commemorative
statues, and in 2009 the United Nations naming July 18th as a day in his honor.

WINSTON CHURCHILL
November 30, 1874- January 24, 1965
Success in not final, Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.
British statesman, orator, and author who as prime minister (194045, 195155)
rallied the British people during World War II and led his country from the brink of
defeat to victory.
Winston Churchill came from a long line of English aristocrat-politicians. His
father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was descended from the First Duke of Marlborough
and was himself a well-known figure in Tory politics in the 1870s and 1880s. His
mother, born Jennie Jerome, was an American heiress whose father was a stock
speculator and part owner of The New York Times. He was educated at the Harrow
prep school, where he performed so poorly that he did not even bother to apply to
Oxford or Cambridge. Instead, in 1893 young Winston Churchill headed off to
military school at Sandhurst.

Churchill traveled all around the British Empire as a soldier and as a

journalist. In 1896, he went to India; his first book, published in 1898, was an
account of his experiences in Indias Northwest Frontier Province. In 1899, the
London Morning Post sent him to cover the Boer War in South Africa, but he was
captured by enemy soldiers almost as soon as he arrived. By the time he returned
to England in 1900, the 26-year-old Churchill had published five books.
That same year, Winston Churchill joined the House of Commons as a
Conservative. Four years later, he crossed the chamber and became a Liberal. His
work on behalf of progressive social reforms such as an eight-hour workday, a
government-mandated minimum wage, a state-run labor exchange for unemployed
workers and a system of public health insurance infuriated his Conservative
colleagues, who complained that this new Churchill was a traitor to his class.
In 1911, Churchill turned his attention away from domestic politics when he
became the First Lord of the Admiralty (akin to the Secretary of the Navy in the
U.S.). Noting that Germany was growing more and more bellicose, Churchill began
to prepare Great Britain for war: He established the Royal Naval Air Service,
modernized the British fleet and invented one of the earliest tanks.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Churchill bounced from government job to
government job, and in 1924 he rejoined the Conservatives. Especially after the
Nazis came to power in 1933, Churchill spent a great deal of time warning his
countrymen about the perils of German nationalism, but Britons were weary of war
and reluctant to get involved in international affairs again. Likewise, the British
government ignored Churchills warnings and did all it could to stay out of Hitlers
way. In 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain even signed an agreement giving
Germany a chunk of Czechoslovakiathrowing a small state to the wolves,
Churchill scoldedin exchange for a promise of peace.
A year later, however, Hitler broke his promise and invaded Poland. Britain
and France declared war. Chamberlain was pushed out of office, and Winston
Churchill took his place as prime minister in May 1940.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat, Churchill told the
House of Commons in his first speech as prime minister. We have before us many,
many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can
say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the
strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never
surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You
ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs,
victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for
without victory, there is no survival.

Just as Churchill predicted, the road to victory in World War II was long and
difficult: France fell to the Nazis in June 1940. In July, German fighter planes began
three months of devastating air raids on Britain herself. Though the future looked
grim, Churchill did all he could to keep British spirits high. He gave stirring speeches
in Parliament and on the radio. He persuaded U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to
provide war suppliesammunition, guns, tanks, planesto the Allies, a program
known as Lend-Lease, before the Americans even entered the war.
Though Churchill was one of the chief architects of the Allied victory, warweary British voters ousted the Conservatives and their prime minister from office
just two months after Germanys surrender in 1945.
In 1951, 77-year-old Winston Churchill became prime minister for the second
time. He spent most of this term working (unsuccessfully) to build a sustainable
dtente between the East and the West. He retired from the post in 1955.
In 1953, Queen Elizabeth made Winston Churchill a knight of the Order of the
Garter. He died in 1965, one year after retiring from Parliament.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN
February 12, 1809- April 15, 1865
You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything
you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire
with singleness of purpose.
Known for his incredible leadership skills, fantastic speeches, and incredibly
sharp political abilities, Abraham Lincoln is one of the Western worlds most wellknown and widely respected political leaders. The 16th President of the United
States and the nations leader during a time of crisis, Abraham Lincoln is a true
success story.
Born on February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln grew up in modest
surroundings. As a young child, Lincoln was raised in Kentucky by his parents, with

his father Thomas a local business and social leader. However, his father lost the
majority of his assets in legal cases, forcing the family to move to Indiana at the
time, part of the frontier.
Abraham Lincoln was not regarded as a particularly hardworking child.
Instead of adapting to frontier life and embracing the hard labor associated with it,
Abraham retreated into books and self-education. He did, however, gain a local
reputation as an expert fighter after defeating one of his towns bullies in a
wrestling match.
When people discuss Abraham Lincoln in modern society, they typically talk
about his incredibly oratory skills and leadership abilities. What few people know is
that the young Abraham Lincoln had a very limited education that consisted of
roughly one year of formal schooling from unskilled and poorly trained local
teachers.
Instead of accepting his
voracious and passionate reader.
could, finishing advanced titles
Classic Greek poems and novels.
on reading new books.

lack of education, Abraham Lincoln became a

He avidly reached for new books as quickly as he
such as Benjamin Franklins Autobiography and
In his early teens, Lincoln was constantly focused

In his early twenties, Abraham Lincoln invested in a local general store with
one of his close friends, located in New Salem, Illinois. The business fell apart,
forcing the young Lincoln to sell off his share and accept his loses. Disappointed
with the world of business, Lincoln started his political with a run for the Illinois
General Assembly.
His political career, unfortunately, was also a failure, with Lincoln finishing
eighth out of thirteen candidates. Disappointed with his failure, Lincoln again
retreated to the world of books. This time, his reading had a definite focus he
would learn the law for himself, becoming a lawyer in the process, and run for public
office again.Just like his self-education allowed him to escape from his home and
turn towards a political career, Abraham Lincolns self-educated legal skills made
him one of the top candidates in the House of Representatives election. Lincoln
eventually served four terms in the house, making him a leader in local politics in
Illinois.
A staunch Whig Party advocate, Lincoln was then elected to the United States
House of Representatives in 1846. It was during his congressional career that
Lincoln took an at-the-time bold stance against slavery, attempting to introduce a
bill that would ban slavery in Washington D.C. and compensate current slave
owners.After his short career in the House of Representatives, Lincoln distanced
himself from the world of politics and worked as a lawyer in Illinois. For sixteen
years, he worked on behalf of both large companies and individuals in the state,
working on some of the most influential and important cases of his day.

In 1858, growing disappointed with the direction of the Whig Party, Lincoln
entered the world of politics again, this time siding with the then-new Republican
Party. The young Abraham Lincoln chose the 1958 Senatorial Election for Illinois as
his second entry point in politics, aiming to defeat the Democratic Senator Stephen
Douglas.
Despite gaining a larger share of the popular vote than his opponent, Lincoln
lost the election and missed out on the position. He did, however, secure a great
deal of large scale support in the Republican Party, which allowed him to pursue an
even greater goal the Presidency of the United States just two years later in
1860.Lincoln built a campaign that revolved around the issue of slavery at the
time an incredibly contentious and divisive issue in the United States. He won the
election with a huge majority, beating out his opponents combined.
Unfortunately, many of the southern states, which supported slavery, took
the opportunity to depart from the Union before he took office. As South Carolina,
Texas, Florida, and four other states departed from the Union, Lincoln and thenPresident Buchanan witnessed the start of the countrys largest internal war.
Lincolns involvement in the American Civil War is well documented and
incredibly detailed, with entire books written about single battles. If theres one
moment that stands out from his tenure during the Civil War, it would be his passing
of the well-known Emancipation Proclamation, a leading bill in freeing the many
African slaves.In the year that followed, Lincoln managed the Union war effort,
culminating in his well-known speech at Gettysburg following the incredible Union
victory there. The battle proved a turning point in the war, giving the Union forces
the might and drive that they required to capture the southern states and win the
Civil War.
After rebuilding the United States and driving the country forward beyond the
era of slavery, Lincoln continued to advocate for civil rights. He suggested giving
the ability to vote to black slaves, something that incensed his detractors. On April
14th, 1865, a one John Wilkes Booth a Confederate spy assassinated Abraham
Lincoln during a performance of Our American Cousin.
Lincolns success as a political leader and his immense approval and near
mythical status in American politics today didnt stem from a privileged upbringing
or great education. It stemmed from his immense drive and determination, and his
skills in educating himself when others refused to help him learn with their help.
A self-proclaimed bookworm, Lincoln read huge amounts of books during his
teens and early adulthood, claiming that his self-taught learning style is what
helped him in achieving his success. If theres one great lesson of Abraham
Lincolns life, its that everyone regardless of their background can educate
themselves to the point of being able to achieve truly great things in their lives.