Colonel Sanders: The journey to the top

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Post created on 12:44 pm

 

Colonel Harland David Sanders (September 9, 1890 – December 16, 1980) was an American business man popularly known for founding Kentucky fried Chicken (KFC) and for also acting as the brand ambassador. He was born on 9 September, 1980 at Henryville, Indiana, United States. Colonel sanders is an idol in the American restaurant history.

Colonel Sanders began his business franchise sometimes around 1952, his first franchise sale went to Pete Harman, who ran a restaurant in Salt Lake City and as the business grew bigger a new interstate reduced traffic at Sanders’ Own restaurant in North Carolina, he sold the shop and began to move from restaurant to restaurant cooking batches of Chicken and was being paid for every chicken sold in these restaurant. In the year 1964 he already had over 600 franchised outlets.

Kentucky Chicken gained public attention in the year 1966 and was listed in New York stock Exchange in the year 1969. Sanders was 65 and reliant on a $150-a-month Social security check when he incorporated Kentucky Fried Chicken and began driving his 1946 Ford around town signing new Franchisees.

Sanders first began to serve meals to truck drivers using an old family dining, fried chicken was not included in the menu because it took too long to prepare.  His meals soon grew popular that he soon opened Sander’s Café across the street and he began to serve chicken fried in iron pan. Sanders’ fried chicken, however, became a fast-food hit in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was there his friend Pete Harman who operated one of the largest restaurants in the country became his first franchisee.

With the Colonel Sanders name is been said this day one could hardly think of him like a boy with a silver spoon but I would say he searched through thick and thin and found his silver spoon.

There is a lot to Colonel Sanders than just “the founder and the face on KFC logo. Now, here is something you need to know about the colonel, Sanders lost his father at the age of six, loosing ones father is not an experience anyone can get over easily and with this young man battling with the absence of his father he found himself under the care of a step-father who maltreated him and as result he left home at the age of thirteen because he could not cope with his step-father and leaving home meant that he was leaving school.

At age sixteen Sanders got enlisted in the army but got discharged months later because he falsified his age. He got married at the age of eighteen but two years after his wife left him. Things didn’t get any way better after his wife left, he lost his only son to an illness and got fired from selling insurance for insubordination. Everything seemed to be going down the drain with Sanders; He started working for Michelin Tire Company and later became jobless after the company shot down their plant.

In the year 1939 he acquired a motel which got burnt by fire four month later, something seems mysterious about this man. One would think he was under a curse but there is this thing with this man that whenever he falls, he rises up. Colonel had the motel built back with as a motel with 140-seat restaurant. At a point he attempted committing suicide but it failed.

There was something intriguing about this man, and that was, each time he fell he rose up still having faith that he could achieve something great. He sat down one day to write his will, he realized how much he could have achieved all his life, he stood up buckled up, then he took a loan to sell his fried chicken from door to door. He travelled across the country, from restaurant to restaurant in an attempt to sell his franchise.

He pushed through countless refusal until he met Pete Harman who stroke the first deal in Utah and the duo formed first KFC site in 1952.

Looking to Colonel Sanders’ early life, one could barely see any pleasant about him but the man Sanders stood up after every fall.

It was all these the popular Colonel Sanders the man behind KFC went through to the top.

The Journey to the top is not always a smooth ride and I will like to leave you on this final note.

“The only man who truly fails is the one who refuses to stand up wherever he falls”