Rich
HOW DID COLONEL HARLAND SANDERS BECAME SO RICH ………
Colonel Harland Sanders was the founder of the world famous Kentucky Fried Chicken which is now a household name around the world. No wonder , Colonel Sanders as he was also passionately called , became the Chicken King of America then in the 1800’s. This is his story and his philosophy………
Sanders was born in Kentucky in 1890 and he was the eldest of the family of five. When he was six his father passed away leaving his mother the full responsibility of bring up the family. At an early age, Sanders had to cook for the entire family whenever his mother was not around. His mother, seeing Sanders had a keen interest in cooking , taught him her favourite receipe in the preparation of fried chicken.
Sanders worked in many jobs including being an amateur lawyer , a railroad section hand, even as a barber and later became an insurance salesman. He also worked as a tire salesman and ran a service station. But in his life , he was always on the look-out for new opportunities , and he was clever enough to know how best to profit from them
He never gave up trying and loking for opportunities and ironicaly enough, he spent most of his first 65 years moving from one job to another, learnig the ticks of business and trying to make something for himself. Even by the time he was on pension collecting his social security check , he was not successful at all.
At 40, when he was operating a service station in Kentucky , he would also feed the hungry travelers stopping at his service station. He would serve his favourite dish, the fried chicken , to his customers who liked his home cooking style. He become very popular with the travelers and his fried chicken became an instant hit.
With his customers growing and his business expanding ,he then moved his operation to a restaurant across the street, and his now popular fried chicken became well known among the neighborhood, His fried chicken was fried in a pressure cooker with his mother’s receipe having been perfected with a special blend of herbs and spices. However, in 1952 he had to close the restaurant when a new highway was contructed replacing the existing one and this had affected his business badly. As a result , Sanders lost almost all his business and was forced to auction all his property . He was left with only his secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. What he did later would change his life and became rich at a very much later part of his life. At that time, franchising was taking shape in America and Sanders then decided to francise his secret receipe to others. He talked to his friend & restaurateur Pete Harman. After sampling Sanders fried chicken , Pete Harman was impressed and agreed to try the receipe on a trial basis.
One day Sanders was passing through Pete Harman’s restaurant ,there was a huge sign in front of his restaurant which said “Kentucky Fried Chicken , Something New , Something Different .” Sanders was told that his receipe was so successful and Harman wanted to serve the fried chicken in all of his restaurants. Sanders knew instantly that the opportunity had come knocking on his door . He swung into action and started to devoted all his time to franchising his fried chicken business. He called his fried chicken the Kentucky Fried Chicken. He and his wife would drive around the country with pressure cookers and with his secret herbs and spices they would convince their prospective franchisees with cooking demonstrations. He would ensure that his franchisees fried their chicken in exactly his own way , the KFC way. Otherwise he would terminate the franchisee contract and removed all equipment and his secret blend of herb & spices. Sanders sold his Kentucky Fried Chicken business in 1963, after much persuasion, to John Y, Brown and Jack Massey for US$2 million. He also received an annual salary of US$40,000 , a lifetime job as KFC goodwill ambassador and a good income from KFC commercials. Today the image of Sanders as Kentucky Colonel with a moustache and goatee carrying a cane and wearing a white suit can be seen in all KFC outlets , all around the world . Sanders died in 1980 of leukemia at the age of 90. For Sanders , his success did not come his way until he was more that 65 years old. His greatest lesson that we can learn from is irrespective of what business we do, we must fully involve ourselves with total dedication and passion and we must always grab the opportunity quick and then keep trying until we become successful.
Quotable Quotes
“If you invest , you may be Rich
But if you don’t invest , you will never be Rich”
“The higher the risks , the higher is your return
So invest wisely!!……
