Born into a family of grape farmers, Ferruccio did not share the farming passion like his family; instead, he was more interested in mechanics.
After serving the Air Force during World War II, Ferruccio took old military machines and re-purposed them as agriculture supplies such as tractors for Italian farmers
When he became wealthy in his tractor business, he bought several luxury cars, including a Ferrari, and began racing them.
He noticed that his Ferrari was too noisy and rough for his liking, and it had the same cheap clutch used in his tractor. So, he told the founder, Enzo Ferrari about it.
Considering Ferrari was the top dog of the car business, he felt insulted by the feedback given by Ferruccio. So, Enzo told Ferruccio that he didn’t need any advice from a farmer’s boy who only knew about tractors.
A customer talking about their experience with you is worth ten times that which you write or say about yourself.”
David J. Greer
Ferruccio used Enzo’s humiliation as his driving force to start designing his own type of luxury cars and founded, Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini.
Four months later, he revealed the Lamborghini 350 GTV at the Turin Motor Show in October 1963. By the end of 1964, Ferruccio sold his first 13 Lamborghinis.
The rest, as they say, is history.
And the moral of the story is?
It pays to listen to your customers.
