Ford Created Modern Weekend
Share
A story about how Henry Ford created the modern weekend and 40-hour work week in America.
"In the 1920s, Henry Ford was like 'Hey look, the thing about our guys working so much, and my company is so big at Ford Motor Company, I need people to buy cars. Because if they're working so much, they can't buy pants, they can't buy shirts, they can't go out to eat, and thus they can't buy cars.'
Therefore, I'm going to try this thing where we're going to create the weekend. We're going to give Saturday and Sunday off because if they don't buy stuff, people aren't going to buy cars. So in the 1920s, Henry Ford says the weekend's a thing, and that was the beginning of the 40-hour work week.
He did something crazy at the time - he goes 'Hey workers, guess what? I'm giving you Saturday and Sunday off. I'm not even going to touch your pay, your pay is going to stay the same.' That was really revolutionary at the time. His workers ended up loving him more. He also built towns, similar to what Facebook does now and Google, where they give you a stipend if you live within 5 miles of the office.
Even though he gave them the weekend, people were still working 12 hours a day, so they were working 60 hours a week. But then he eventually lowered it to 40 hours a week, and that became kind of what the 40-hour work week in America is for workers. He sort of invented that."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.