flâneur

Founders: #151 Frederick Smith (FedEx)

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What I learned from reading Overnight Success: Federal Express and Frederick Smith, Its Renegade Creator by Vance Trimble. ---- [0:01] At age thirty Frederick Wallace Smith was in deep trouble. His dream of creating Federal Express had become too expensive and was fast fizzling out. He had exhausted his father’s millions. He was in hock for 15 or 20 million more. He appeared in danger of losing his cargo jets and also his wife. His own board of directors had fired him as CEO. Now the FBI accused him of forging papers to get a $2 million bank loan and was trying to send him to prison. He thought of suicide. [1:08] At any risk, at any cost, he refused to let his Federal Express dream die. [6:23] I believe that a man who expects to win out in business without self-denial and self-improvement stands about as much chance as a prizefighter would stand if he started a hard ring battle without having gone through intensive training. Natural ability, even when accompanied by the spirit to win, is never sufficient. [7:32] It was push and drive he inherited from his father. He had to be doing something all the time. [9:19] Fred is one of those people who never gives up if he wants something a

[00:00:00] At age 30, Frederick Wallace Smith was in deep trouble. His dream of creating Federal Express had become too expensive and was fast fizzling out. He had exhausted his father's millions. He was in hawk for 15 or 20 million more. He appeared in danger of losing his cargo planes and his wife. His own board of directors had fired him as CEO. And now the FBI accused him of forging papers to get a $2 million bank loan and was trying to send him to prison. [00:00:36] He thought of suicide. But any talk of suicide was uncharacteristic of Fred Smith. It is ridiculous to think of Fred even…

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