Monday 5 September 2011

Persistency: the key to success of “the Colonel”


Colonel Sanders



How many times in your life you had an idea, but you didn’t take action? How many times in your life, after some “no”, did you give up? Persistency, having 100% faith in you is the key factor to success. That is what makes the difference between all successful people and all others, who had a great project/idea and didn’t even have the courage to tell anybody else. Not all people exercise their “guts”, embracing their fears, giving them a deadly embrace. How many times do we take excuses for not achieving our goals? I am too old, I don’t have enough money, I don’t live in the right place and I don’t have a title and many more, the most creative ones for not achieving our dreams, for the fear of failure.

I came across a story of a very famous man, whose face is very familiar to me, although I have never been in one of his restaurants. I think I am one of the few on Earth. I think you are familiar with the face of an old man on a big basket of fried chicken. The smiling visage of Colonel Sanders has been the face of KFC (also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken) for many years. Even nearly thirty years after his death, the image of the jovial southern gentleman (Sanders himself was born in Indiana) still stands as the public face of the company he started in the midst of the great depression.

He was 65 years old, when he received his first cheque of $ 99 for his retirement, when he decided he wanted to do something, starting his business. He realized, although he didn’t have a lot of money, he was 65 years old, he was in the midst of the great depression, to have something important: a great recipe to cook the best fried chicken. He started to go one after another to propose his fantastic recipe. And guess what? He received a no, another no and then another no and so on. He collected 1009 no.

His persistency was his success, because at 1010 was a YES. And then it is history the big success he achieved. He died in 1980, leaving a great legacy: His image remains iconic in KFC; a foundation he established in his later years aids charities and funds scholarships with over a million dollars in grants a year.

“The Colonel” is a great example of someone who didn’t care about his age, money availability, depression…We create our destiny with our decisions we take every minute of our life. We are the creators of our fortune or misfortune. Only when we believe 100% in ourselves we can succeed and when we run towards our fears. Only when we are strong enough to face 1000 no, we can win. That’s the Soul’s Expansion. By the way, we are on this planet for this reason, to give us the most beautiful gift: the gift of the experience. No mistakes exist, only experience exists.

Remember “to exercise your guts”.


Linda Lattuca