Soichiro Honda was a school lad when the Great Depression of 1929 took place. He wanted to improve his family’s living conditions and so toiled day and night after he finished his schooling.
He developed the concept of piston ring and wanted to sell the same to Toyota who were already established makers. His first attempts failed and after two years succeeded in selling the same to Toyota.
But the budding entrepreneur was disappointed when his factory got bombed twice. Not to be outdone he focussed his energies on building a small engine for bicycles that were in rage then. So he wrote to over 15,000 bicycle shops all over the country convincing them for new orders. 30% of bicycle shop owners responded to his call and loaned him money.
This helped him to develop his bicycle engine that later was improvised to make the ‘Super Cub’ 2-wheeler. Rest is history.