Born on 9 September 1890, in Henryville, Indiana, United States, Colonel Harland Sanders was destined to give the world one of the tastiest chicken recipes. As easy as it seems, the 11 herbs are still guarded under tight security to maintain the secrecy of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).
Colonel Sanders is renowned for his finger-lickin’ good chicken and his numerous failures and setbacks that dawned his sun that would never set until people consumed chicken.
When Sanders was merely 5 years old, his father passed away, leaving his mother and three children behind. This loss helped Sanders write his glorious future, blossoming in adversity like a lotus.
No hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me.
When his mother went to work at the end of the day, he would take care of his siblings, which made him proficient in cooking. At the age of just 7, Colonel Harland Sanders learnt how to make bread and vegetables and developed his knowledge of preparing well-cooked meat. By age 10, Sanders was working a farm, creating a path for this future.
His life changed at the age of 12 when his mother remarried in 1902. The arduous environment at home after the marriage forced him to leave the house the following year for good.
I’ve only had two rules: Do all you can and do it the best you can. It’s the only way you ever get that feeling of accomplishing something.
He worked odd jobs for the next few years, including owning a ferry boat and selling tyres, but he never stuck to anything. In 1930, at age 40, Sanders finally opened a restaurant inside a Shell Oil Company-owned gas station in North Corbin, Kentucky, where he sold chicken.
Finally, he reached a breakeven point in 1939, when he owned a motel and a restaurant but lost them to fire just 4 months after the inauguration. In 1940, at the age of 50, Colonel started discovering his secret recipe that would change the taste of chicken, and people would not look at it anywhere other than his.
World War II then brought him near bankruptcy when he sold his business in 1942 and also got divorced in 1947.
He again started a restaurant, and it was going well when an interstate route that led traffic past his place was changed. Feeling dejected by his fortune, Sanders didn’t call it quits. He decided to sell his franchised chicken model to restaurants and would take only 4 cents in commissions per chicken burger sold. 1009 restaurants rejected him before sealing a deal.
Soon after, the company became too big for Sanders to handle, so in 1964, he sold it to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown, Jr. and Jack C. Massey.
His image is widely used in KFC advertising, making him an immortal figure in the fast-food industry.
You got to like your work. You have got to like what you are doing, you have got to be doing something worthwhile so you can like it – because it is worthwhile, that it makes a difference, don’t you see?
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