- Jun 27, 2003
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FRED SMITH OF FEDERAL EXPRESS
You can tell how big a man is by observing how much it takes to discourage him.
François Fenelon
Education is much more than simply learning facts. Facts do not provide insight. Facts do not promote risk-taking. Looking back on your life, have there been times when you had the gut feeling that something would work when everyone else thought it would not? Were you right? As a student at Yale, Fred Smith wrote a paper outlining the need for a nationwide delivery company that specialized in time-sensitive goods. According to Freds research, such a company might have a substantial market. The paper got a C, but Fred did not forget the idea. After graduation and a stint in the Marine Corps, Fred bought into an aviation service in 1969. He commissioned two consulting firms to study the feasibility of overnight express delivery. What the companies told him confirmed Freds earlier research.
Fred Smith raised $80 million, including some family funds, to start his new venture on June 1, 1971, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Large amounts were spent on advertising, which included full-page ads and television commercials. Operations began on April 17, 1973, serving twenty-four cities. The company almost went under several times and did not show a profit until 1976. By 1980, however, earnings totaled almost $60 million, and Federal Express had become the dominant force in the overnight courier business.
CONSIDER THIS: When your ideas are rejected or ridiculed, continue to investigate on your own until you know if those ideas were truly sound.
Submitted by Richard
You can tell how big a man is by observing how much it takes to discourage him.
François Fenelon
Education is much more than simply learning facts. Facts do not provide insight. Facts do not promote risk-taking. Looking back on your life, have there been times when you had the gut feeling that something would work when everyone else thought it would not? Were you right? As a student at Yale, Fred Smith wrote a paper outlining the need for a nationwide delivery company that specialized in time-sensitive goods. According to Freds research, such a company might have a substantial market. The paper got a C, but Fred did not forget the idea. After graduation and a stint in the Marine Corps, Fred bought into an aviation service in 1969. He commissioned two consulting firms to study the feasibility of overnight express delivery. What the companies told him confirmed Freds earlier research.
Fred Smith raised $80 million, including some family funds, to start his new venture on June 1, 1971, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Large amounts were spent on advertising, which included full-page ads and television commercials. Operations began on April 17, 1973, serving twenty-four cities. The company almost went under several times and did not show a profit until 1976. By 1980, however, earnings totaled almost $60 million, and Federal Express had become the dominant force in the overnight courier business.
CONSIDER THIS: When your ideas are rejected or ridiculed, continue to investigate on your own until you know if those ideas were truly sound.
Submitted by Richard
