The Story of KFC

1
422

The world is full of stories. Some of them are truly inspiring. Today I will share one such story with you all. That of one Colonel Sanders. Some of you may have heard or read of him, those who haven’t, just stay with me until the end of this article.

Colonel Harland David Sanders was the eldest child of his family and just five years old when his father died of fever. His mother started working at a tomato farm and he was required to look after his three siblings. At the age of ten, he started working as a farmhand for the local farmers. Eventually his mother remarried, but Sanders didn’t have a very good relationship with his stepfather.

He dropped out of seventh grade and went to live and work on a nearby farm. When he was thirteen, he left his home and painted horse carriages in Indianapolis to earn a living. Quite a story already, isn’t it? There’s more to it. By the by, Sanders started working as a conductor where his uncle worked, got married to a girl called Josephine and had a son. He lost his boy to a tonsil infection, but was later blessed with two daughters.

Down the road some, Sanders picked up the job of a fireman which he lost a in few months, From that he made a move to law, a profession he worked very profitably in for three years. In 1916, he began to work with the insurance companies, selling life insurances! A year later he established a boat company which became an instant success.

In 1930, Sanders was offered a service station by an oil company in Kentucky, and it was totally rent free. He began to serve chicken dishes and other meals. Initially, he served the customers in his living quarters, later opening a restaurant. He started making a decent amount of money out of it. In July 1939, he acquired a motel in North Carolina. The motel was destroyed by fire and rebuilt as a 140 seat restaurant in November 1939, and Sanders franchised his secret recipe “Kentucky Fried Chicken” for the first time to a businessman from Utah.

Yes, this person who worked as a farm hand and failed at various jobs was the founder of KFC. He started the business when he was in his mid-forties and became a billionaire in some thirty years.

This story is an inspiration for all of us. A lesson to never stop trying new things and pursuing new interests.

Keep exploring yourself!

1 COMMENT

Comments are closed.