Rolls-Royce makes some of the most expensive cars in the world. And yet this $7 billion company was
founded by a boy who grew up in poverty with almost no education. In fact, Henry Royce
started his first million-dollar company with just £20 to his name. So, how did he do it?
Henry Royce was born in 1863. His parents, James and Mary, ran a flour mill. Unfortunately,
the family business was struggling, and by 1867, they went bankrupt. This forced
the Royce family to move to London to look for work. Even though he was just four years old,
Henry began working his first job scaring birds on a farm making just a few cents a week.
His father went on to work for another flour mill, but he was still in a massive amount of
debt. Things were bleak for the family, and then just when it seemed like it couldn’t
get much worse, tragedy stuck. When he was only 9 years old, Henry’s father died. Not
only was this devastating, but it meant the family’s financial struggles only got worse.
And so, instead of going to school, Henry worked full time. He sold newspapers and delivered
telegrams for the post office, making the equivalent of just a few cents for every delivery.
However Henry’s mother was still in debt, and realized she could no longer support
her children. So she sent Henry to live with an elderly couple instead - although to be
honest they were barely making ends meet themselves. There were many days when all
Henry had to eat was a piece of bread soaked in milk. This malnutrition, combined with hard
labor as a child, contributed to him having health problems for the rest of his life.
By the time he was 15 years old, Henry had only completed one year of school. So his
aunt tried to help with his education, by giving him the small fee needed to
join an apprenticeship programme with the Great Northern Railway Company.
This meant Henry had to relocate again, and whilst his aunt managed to cover the fee
for the apprenticeship scheme, she couldn’t afford to pay for his housing - but luckily
Henry managed to move in with a man name George Yarrow, whose son was also an apprentice for the
railway company. At night, George tutored the two boys on how to use tools. Henry found this
fascinating and spent many hours practising, and despite being just a teenager he was
soon regularly building beautifully made brass model wheelbarrows in the Yarrow's garden shed.
Henry may not have had much of an education, but he was skilled with his hands,
and had an incredible work ethic. Unfortunately, the money from his
aunt only lasted for three years of his apprenticeship, before he had to drop out again.
So, at 17 years old, Henry began working with a tool-making company in Leeds,
making just one penny per hour. Then he moved on to the Electric Light and Power
Company in Liverpool. He worked harder and longer than all of his co-workers,
often skipping meals in favor of tinkering with electronics.
After working these different jobs and saving up whatever he could, he was finally able to
afford to take electrical engineering classes at night, at the City and Guilds Institute.
The skills he learnt from these classes meant that by 19 years old,
he was able to get the best job of his life so far, working as Chief Electrician for the
Maxim-Weston Electric company. Henry felt like he was finally making progress. However in 1884,
the company tanked, and Henry was left unemployed yet again.
It seemed as though no matter how hard he tried, he could never catch a break.
But this time, instead of looking for another new job at a different company, Henry decided
he was going to start his own company. Even though he came from such humble beginnings,
Henry felt there had to be more to life than this - and so he decided he’d try to
become rich and start his own business. Of course, he knew he needed some help,
so he tried to convince his co-workers to join him.
His friend named Ernest Claremont agreed to take the risk - he was also an engineer,
and together they began a new business called F.H. Royce and Company in 1884. At the time,
Henry only had £20 to his name, while Ernest had £50. But they pooled what little savings
they had and went into business together - beginning by making electric fittings.
They rented a building on 1a Cooke Street in Manchester, and lived in a single room
above the shop. The two could barely afford to eat, so they made sandwiches every single day.
The odds of two young men succeeding like this was slim to none. But instead of giving in to
self-doubt, Henry did what he’d always done, and simply worked harder than the rest. With
everything he did, he made sure that the product was better than the competition.
Finally, after lots of testing, they created their first successful product- the electric doorbell.
These began to sell very quickly, and Henry was known to stay up working long nights at his desk
to make more of them for his customers. Using the money they made, Henry was able to begin
creating more ambitious bigger products, like generators and eventually even an electric crane.
Every year they were in business, they created more products to sell,
and their profits grew further. In 1897, the orders in hand amounted to £6,000. Twelve months
later orders amounted to £20,000. By 1899, the company's share capital was £30,000. Now that
may not sound like a lot, but remember this is the 1800’s - after modern-day inflation,
that equates to over a million dollars. However, despite this success, Henry was already setting
his sights on something even more ambitious: to create the most luxurious car in the world.
But first, Henry had another matter to attend to. Now that Henry and Ernest were wealthy from their
first business, they finally felt that they could focus a little more on their personal lives. The
two friends were so close that they actually ended up marrying a pair of sisters- Edith and Minnie
Punt. So although they’d been business partners, Henry and Ernest were now officially family.
The success of their first company making electrical goods also meant that they were
finally established enough that Henry could get even more ambitious with his mechanical projects.
Now at the time, very few people owned cars. But Henry Royce was one of the first to get a keen
interest in automobiles, and purchased a used 1901 two-cylinder French car. Unfortunately It was in
such terrible condition, it wouldn’t even start. But by the next day, Henry had it working again.
And instead of stopping there, he continually made improvements to all the faults he found with it.
Eventually, Henry decided rather than improving this car, he should build his own,
and in 1904 he’d custom built three cars which were given the model name Royce 10.
The first car was for himself. The second was given to
his business partner, Ernest. But the third was sold to a man who was
so impressed by the vehicle, that he introduced Henry to a car dealer named Charles Rolls.
When Charles Rolls met Henry Royce, surely neither of them could have
possibly imagined the journey they were about to embark on together.
No one would have ever expected Charles Rolls and Henry Royce to become business partners.
Henry was a true rags-to-riches story, but his partner Charles was the polar opposite,
having practically everything handed to him from an early age. However, both of them shared
a true passion for cars. And this partnership would lead to the iconic Rolls-Royce brand.
Charles Rolls was born in 1877 to the 1st Baron and Lady Llangattock. Even
from a young age, Charles was always tinkering with mechanical objects,
earning him the nickname “Dirty Rolls” from his friends. He attended the prestigious
Cambridge University for mechanical and applied science. And, after graduation,
he worked on a yacht before moving on to work for the London and North Western Railway.
Charles was also one of the very first people in the UK to own a car. In fact there’s even
a photo of him from 1896 in his Peugeot Phaeton, which he bought in Paris at just 18 year old. He
loved cars so much that his father gave him the money to open a car dealership. This was called
C. S. Rolls & Co., and he began importing French cars to sell to English customers.
Charles Rolls had earned himself quite a reputation in the motorhead community. He
held the unofficial land speed record of driving 83 miles per hour. Maybe
that doesn’t sound impressive by today’s standards, but back then,
it was incredibly fast. In fact, Charles was actually known as a bit of a daredevil.
In 1903, Charles competed in the Paris to Madrid town-to-town, where thirty-four drivers and
spectators died. This mostly happened because the cars kicked up so much dirt on the roads
that no one could see. And people from the audience would step out in the street to get
a better look at the cars, and end up getting run over. But Charles thrived in the chaos,
and continued racing year after year, regardless of how dangerous the races were.
Not only was Charles a huge fan of driving fast cars, but he was also an aviator. He
made over 170 flights in a hot air balloon, and he became the second person in Great Britain to
own a pilot’s license. He would go on to fly over 200 flights in a Wright Flyer aircraft.
So clearly Charles had had a very different upbringing to Henry,
and Charles undoubtedly had a taste for luxury. However, When Charles Rolls first met Henry Royce,
he hesitated. He was a big fan of three and four cylinder cars,
so he wasn’t sure how he could like a 2-cylinder vehicle like the one made by Henry.
But after trying out Henry’s car, Charles was so impressed by the quality of the Royce 10,
he said it was clear that they needed to work together.
That evening, Charles drove back to London in a borrowed Royce car. In
the middle of the night, he woke up his business partner and excitedly told him,
"I just found the greatest motor engineer in the world".
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In December of 1904, Charles Rolls and Henry Royce officially created the joint
business Rolls-Royce. These two men couldn’t be more different. Henry was born in poverty,
and worked for everything he had. Whereas Charles was young,
and had everything handed to him. There was also a significant age gap between them.
Charles was just 27 years old, and Henry was 41. But each brought a lot to the partnership.
Henry had many years of experience building electronics and mechanical objects to perfection.
And Charles was more than just a lover of fast cars. He was an incredible businessman who knew
how to harness the power of marketing and public relations. Charles used his connections in the
upper class to his advantage. He exploited his ties in the world of politics, media,
and even royalty to find customers who could afford to buy their luxury cars.
So the two of these together were a perfect pairing, as they each brought
perfectly complementary skills that the other one didn’t have. They were
both masters of their craft, and as a duo, they were unstoppable.
In 1904, they presented their first vehicle, the Rolls-Royce 10 hp at a show called The
Paris Salon, which would later go on to be called the Paris Motor Show. They sold the
car at Charles’ car dealership for £395 each. With modern inflation, that’d be the equivalent
of tens of thousands of dollars. They made only 16 of these cars, and if you can find one today,
it’s worth a fortune. One was sold at auction for £3.2 million in 2007.
Their second vehicle to be sent to market was in 1906: the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost.
All of the metal parts were coated in silver and aluminium. After completing a
15,000 mile endurance run, they decided to pull a publicity stunt to shock audiences:
They placed a cup of water on the running engine. It was such a quiet engine,
that it didn’t spill a single drop of liquid. At the time, it was dubbed the 'best car in the
world'. And as of today, the Silver Ghost is still considered to be one of the most
valuable cars - in fact in 2005, one owner had his insured for $35 million dollars.
Once they were fully established in the world of automobiles and making headlines for their
prestigious and luxurious cars, Charles tried to convince Henry to make an aeroplane engine,
since Charles’ other passion was flying. But Henry refused,
saying that he would rather focus on cars.
Still, with the growing success of the company,
Charles could now devote more time to flying - in fact he eventually resigned from his position
as the Technical Director at Rolls-Royce so that he could solely focus on planes. Charles
said he much preferred flying over driving, since, "there are no policemen in the air."
In 1909, He bought his own Wright Flyer aircraft, and one year later,
he set the record as the first person in the world to make a non-stop flight across
the English Channel and back. The newspapers dubbed him 'the greatest hero of the day'.
Sadly, that wasn’t the only record Charles set. During an air show,
Charles was flying on a day with incredibly strong wind. He was pushing the plane to its limits,
and when he tried to land, the aircraft began to fall apart.
Charles Rolls went down in history as the first Briton to die in a
plane crash in 1910. He was just 32 years old. Just one year later after losing his business
partner, Henry Royce’s health began to decline. His years of poor eating and lack of sleep were
catching up to him. He could no longer spend his days working in the Rolls-Royce factory,
and began spending more time at home. Despite his poor health,
Henry Royce continued to work hard, even if it meant sketching design ideas from his bedside.
Even though Henry had refused to make aeroplane engines for years, he was forced to make them at
the beginning of World War I. In 1914, they manufactured the Rolls-Royce Eagle Engine,
which provided half of the total horsepower for all of the Allied planes. This was the
beginning of Rolls-Royce’s legacy when it came to plane engines.
And with their cars, by 1921, there was such a huge demand for them that there
was a 3 year backlog. So they opened a new American Rolls-Royce factory in Springfield,
Massachusetts. Within 10 years, they had produced 2,944 cars.
If that doesn’t seem like a lot, that’s because Rolls-Royce prides itself on
producing the highest quality vehicles- even if it takes much more time. The same is true
even today. Everything is still made by hand, and can take up to 6 months to complete one vehicle.
In 1930, Henry Royce was awarded the Order of the British Empire, and was knighted as
a Baronet. Just three years later, he died at the age of 70. No matter how ill he felt,
he never stopped working. His last drawings were literally made on his deathbed. The night before
he died, he made a sketch of an adjustable shock-absorber on the back of an envelope,
and asked his nurse to send it to the workers at the factory to produce his
invention. He died before the letter could be delivered.
It’s clear that both of these men left behind a legacy that far outlived them. Rolls-Royce
continued to make vehicles long after their deaths, and even to this day, the name is still
synonymous with luxury. And the company’s most recent valuation was over $7 billion dollars.
If we can learn anything from the Rolls-Royce story,
it’s that no matter where you come from, or how bleak your starting point in life,
with enough hard work and determination you can build something incredible,
and totally transform the direction of your life. In the words of Henry Royce, “Strive
for perfection. Take the best that exists and make it better. If it doesn’t exist, create it.”
And this attitude is actually very similar to the man who created
Lamborghini. He was never happy with cars he tested, and so just like Henry,
he decided to build his own car instead. Although the difference with the Lamborghini
story is that his motivation to build a car was to get revenge on Enzo Ferrari.
Honestly, the Lamborghini story is crazy and you should go check it out for yourself,
I’ve got a video on it right here for you - and it’s the perfect next video
to watch now you know the story of Rolls Royce. So just click this thumbnail on
screen and go check out the truth behind Lamborghini. I’ll see you there. Cheers.