There is no expiration date on our ability to succeed.
Harland had lived a life full of hard work and hard times, but little to show for it by his 65th birthday. His father had died when Harland was just five years old. His mom went to work and Harland took on the responsibility to cook and care for his family.
When his mom remarried, Harland ran away from home and joined the U.S. Army. After his service, he held many jobs to provide for his family.
He worked tirelessly, but never excelled in those jobs, and none lasted long.
Then, at the age of 40, he started cooking for hungry travelers at a service station. He didn’t have a restaurant, so he served people in his living quarters. Using an old family recipe and the cooking skills he gained as a young man, he prepared Southern comfort food for the travelers. His reputation as a chef and the popularity of his meals grew until he was able to expand the business to a motel and a restaurant that seated 142 people. For many years, his restaurant, Court & Cafe, was successful, but even with all his effort and popularity the cards were stacked against him. The construction of the interstate highway and the subsequent reduction in customer traffic forced him out of business and left him nearly penniless.
On the day he closed the Court & Cafe, he received his first Social Security check for $105. Fortunately, Harland had seen the potential to franchise his old family recipe and his image. Three years earlier, he had established his first franchise in Salt Lake City, Utah. But this one franchise wasn’t much and there were barriers to overcome if other franchises were to follow. At 65, these were daunting challenges.
Harland took that $105 and hit the road. He traveled from town to town cooking food and seeking potential franchise owners. Success didn’t come overnight; Harland had to work hard and seek help from successful restaurateurs. But five years later, the “Kentucky Colonel” and his “finger-lickin’ good” chicken were found in 400 locations in the United States and Canada. The business continued to grow and Harland, or Colonel Sanders as most people knew him, finally achieved the success he had worked so hard for all his life.
There is no expiration date on our ability to succeed. Hard work pays off, even if it takes a while for the “check” to come. Failures, handled well, may just pave the way to future—and greater—success. Challenges (like having to drop out of school and cook for your family) are often the greatest blessings and opportunities in our lives. All of these lessons are things Colonel Sanders might tell us, if he were here. And he’d surely tell us “Keep on eating chicken.”
A few tips:
Note his many failures and setbacks. In spite of these, he kept trying.