Failure is an option - Colonel Sanders

Failure is a nature startup and the principle to be a successful entrepreneur should are not always succeed. Some of the most famous entrepreneurs had to fail until they ultimately succeeded.

The example of an entrepreneur that made failure is an option in life has to be the famous was Colonel Harland Sanders who founded the Kentucky Fried Chicken, known today as KFC in his 60s. Colonel Sanders was born September9 in 1890 and grew up on a farm in Henryville, Indiana. Colonel Sanders faced a string of difficulty and failures before he ever achieved any entrepreneurial success at the age of 65.

When he was 6 years old, his father died, he become responsible to take care of his younger brother and sister while his mother must spent long days for working and by the age of 7 he was already a decent cook to feed his siblings. Beginning of the age of 10, he held down numerous jobs, including farmer, tire salesman, railroad fireman, insurance salesman and streetcar conductor.

At his 40 years old, Colonel Sanders was running a service station in Kentucky, where he can also feed hungry travelers. In 1939, his breakthrough when he found that frying chicken in a pressure cooker and with its signature which provide with “11 herbs and spices”. Colonel Sanders converted his operation bring into a restaurant across the street, and featured with 11 herbs and spices cooked fried chicken catch the attention that he was named a Kentucky colonel by Governor Ruby Laffoon. Following the success, he made deals with some local restaurants to sell his featured chicken for a royalty.

However, a failure hit when an interstate bypass took traffic away from his restaurant, which forced him to close in 1956. After closing the restaurant, this failure did not determine he from further pursuing the franchising of his chicken, so he packed with his pressure cooker and went to a road trip stopping at restaurants to cook his chicken for them. He traveled across the country and cooking batches of chicken from restaurant to another restaurant. Sanders devoted himself to franchising his chicken business. His perseverance led to nearly 600 restaurants selling his chicken in 1963. He had selling his company to a venture capitalist, however his friends have said that he cared more about the being known for his cooking rather than money.

 His first franchise sale went to Pete Harman of Salt Lake City. Kentucky Fried Chicken went to public in year 1966 and it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1969. KFC now is the 11th largest fast food company in the world.

Colonel Sanders described himself in his 1974 autobiography “a sixth-grade dropout, a farmhand, an army mule-tender, a locomotive fireman, a railroad worker, an aspiring lawyer, an insurance salesman, a ferryboat entrepreneur, a tire salesman, an amateur obstetrician, an (unsuccessful) political candidate, a gas station operator, a motel operator and finally, a restaurateur.”

However, he was a failure as a restaurateur. He selling his spice blend and equipment to start a chicken franchise allowed him to follow his passion to the food while by passing restaurant operation. He shown the characteristic that never give up from the failure. A successful should always follow your own passion through to fruition. Colonel Sanders had a love of cooking.