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 Passion and Commitment
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There is nothing more inspiring then the true story of a man beating the odds. One of my favorites is the one about an over-the-hill short-order cook who became a multi-millionaire, and a living icon around the world. What makes this story important is that the success of this man has nothing to do with him “knowing the right people,” or being blessed with “dumb luck.” This is the story of a man who made good out of a bad situation, using passion and commitment to support one great idea.
Sometime around 1952, Harland Sanders, a senior citizen from the small town of Corbin Kentucky, received some bad news that threatened his livelihood and put his future in financial jeopardy. It had been decided that the new inter state highway was going to bypass his town completely, thus re-routing the drive-by traffic that was once a major source of income for many local merchants. One of those merchants was Harland, whose small-town restaurant was fast becoming a hot property.
He started off cooking for travelers who stopped by his filling station. He would invite them to come into his home and he fed them right there at his kitchen table. It didn’t take long before people were coming by, not to fill their tanks, but to fill up on Harlands home cooking, especially his delicious fried chicken. Eventually, he moved his operation to a motel and restaurant across the street. The food was so good that Harland became a bit of a local celebrity. In 1935, the state of Kentucky bestowed on him the honourary title of “Kentucky Colonel,” in appreciation for his of his contributions to the local cuisine. 1939, his fame reached a national profile, when his restaurant was immortalized in a book by another famous American chef, Duncan Hines, entitled, "Adventures in Good Eating."
But, come the early 50’s, it looked like the dream was over. With no infrastructure to bring in the customers, Harland would have to sell his business off, piece by piece, just to pay his bills. Now in his mid sixties, “Colonel” Sanders had nothing to show for his years of hard work except a pleasant memory and a social security cheque.
Needless to say, a lot of people would have given up on ever being an entrepreneur again. After all, who starts a business at age 65? Isn’t that when you are supposed to slow down? Isn’t it all down hill from there? But, as you can guess, Col. Sanders had a different idea about what he should and should not do with the so-called “twilight years” of his life.
Sanders was proud of his product, and he believed that he could still make a living doing what he loved to do, even if he couldn’t run a restaurant in Corbin. Without the capital to re-locate, he decided he would get other people to sell his chicken for him. In a word, he franchised his business out to other restaurants. 1952, with just a recipe and some faith, Saunders loaded up his automobile and traveled across America, going from one restaurant to another, selling people on the idea that they should peddle his chicken. He would cook up some of his food for restaurant owners and their employees. You could say that the chicken sold itself. In no time at all, Col. Sanders was back in business.
12 years later, Sanders had built an impressive empire, with 600 franchised outlets across North America. He sold his interest in his company, Kentucky Fired Chicken, for a cool 2 million, cleverly retaining some ownership of franchises in Canada. Recognizing the appeal of this amazing man, the company that bought Kentucky Fried Chicken from Col. Sanders decided to hire him back on as a public spokesman. As the official company pitch man, Sanders was a runaway hit. In 1976, an independent survey named the Colonel as the world's second most recognizable celebrity. He traveled the world, representing KFC restaurants, clocking in some 250,000 miles a year until he died of leukemia in 1980. He was 90.
People continue to be inspired by the story of Col. Sanders. His name and image are evoked as an example of the hope engendered in the American entrepreneurial spirit, as well as proof that age need not be a barrier in any persons’ struggle to be successful. But, we still have to ask ourselves, how did he do it? How did he find the courage and the stamina to carry on when, honestly, most people would have quit?
Certainly, Sanders was no stranger to adversity. Even as a child he was forced to grapple with one challenge after another. His father died when he was six, and his mother was forced to find work, leaving young Harland at home to care for his little brother of three and a baby sister. This meant that he had to learn how to cook for his family. They say that he got quite good at it.
He got his first job at the age of ten, to help out his family. At 12, he left home to work on a farm at a paltry wage of two dollars a month. When he was 16, he enlisted in the US Army and went to serve his country in Cuba. Even as a boy, Sander was willing to test his limits
And, on top of being a hard and determined worker, he was also not afraid to try new things. In fact, he is noted for being a real jack of all trades. He studied law by correspondence and occasionally represented clients before justices of the peace. He was an Ohio River steamboat operator, a fireman, a tire salesman and an insurance salesman before he tried his hand at operating a few service stations. At age 40, he finally started cooking for people as a way of making money.
But I believe that the keys this man’s success in life rests on more then a desire to work hard and to have an open mind. Certainly, these two factors are important, and vital for anyone who has a dream. Nevertheless, I believe that at the core of this man was a great commitment that served to give him the where-with-all to carry on when others would have quit.
How many times have each of us been in the same spot as Harland Sanders, gingerly perusing our goals, trying to make a living, doing our best, when fate steps in and makes things extremely difficult? In his case, a bureaucratic decision to re-route a highway in a different direction brought his prosperous business to a grinding halt. While many of us would give up, there are those who find the strength to carry on, to come back fighting, to turn misfortune into the best bad thing that ever happened to them. How do they do it?
Looking back on the life of the Colonel, I would say that success for him had everything to do with his first love. That is to say, it had everything to do with cooking. As a child he was considered a master of certain distinctly southern dishes, and it shows in his life’s story that, when he was doing what he loved, there was no stopping the man, even when he was well into his senior years.
At age 40, after years of experimenting and roving form one workplace to another, Sanders re-discovered his love for preparing southern foods. He embraced his passion enthusiastically, and, despite the odds, he made a go at it unlike any other enterprise he had ever tried before in his life.
I have no doubt that Sanders had his dark days. I’m sure, when it looked like he would have to close his beloved restaurant, he was a discouraged as any of us might have been under the same circumstances. But much bigger then his despair was his commitment to himself and to his dream. He was proud of his “secret recipe with its eleven herbs and spices,” and he knew he would rather sell fried-chicken recipes out of the back of his car then to ever settle for a life without pursuing his dream. This is where commitment really comes into play for all of us. If we truly know what we want out of life, we can each build a commitment that will create such determination in ourselves that, despite even the obstacles of old age and financial unrest, we can still find the energy to be happy in just building a dream.
To me, this is the real story behind Colonel Sanders. His dream shaped his commitment into something that was unstoppable. He was a man who loved the process of building a franchise, even from it’s humble beginnings, because his business was based on what he cared about. He was willing to do what it takes because he was honestly proud of what he had to offer. This is when “passion” and “commitment” begin to look very much the same. If we believe in ourselves and give our dreams the respect they deserve, our commitment will drive us, and compel us like a passion, buoying us over our doubts and fears, and over any barrier that stands in our way.
It all starts with a dream that you can truly believe in… |
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