The Colonel Sanders Story: From Failed Businesses to a Chicken Monolith

Sometimes, it feels like you can’t turn a corner without seeing a KFC.

Colonel Sanders’ chicken empire has served tasty southern fried goodness for decades. It’s one of the biggest food businesses in the world.

But it wasn’t always that way for the good colonel.

Once upon a time, he found himself struggling just to make ends meet.

Sanders’ father died when he was just six years old. That left the future colonel in charge of cooking and cleaning for his siblings while his mom worked.

That work ethic continued onto his later life. Sanders dropped out of school and went to work as a farm hand.

For a while, he earned enough money to keep the family afloat.

Then, at 16, he faked his age to join the military.

Ever the headstrong young man, he ended up getting kicked out for insubordination.

And that’s when he made the decision that you’re grappling with now. Sanders decided that he didn’t want to work for anybody else ever again.

Instead, he was going to start his own business so that he’d never have somebody telling him what to do.

I’d be lying if I told you that it went well for him at first.

He founded a ferry boat company that struggled along. He later sold that to build a lamp manufacturing company. But that tanked when a competitor with a better product came along.

At 40 years old, Sanders was down. But he wasn’t defeated.

Several more failed businesses followed and World War II put a dampener on his efforts.

Finally, he decided to start selling chicken in his own restaurant. He came up with the secret recipe that we all know and love.

But it still wasn’t plain sailing. His restaurant had to close down due to an interstate opening near his location.

And that’s when he made the decision that changed his life.

Sanders moved into franchising and KFCs started popping up all over America.

Today, the brand has nearly 20,000 restaurants in almost 120 countries.

It just goes to show how determination combined with a great idea can pay off.

I hope Sanders’ story inspires you as much as it did me. I struck out on my own and built a successful business.

And you can too. With Amazon, you can finally make it big on your own.

I can show you how. Click here to reserve your spot at one of our FREE seminars near you to learn more.

A to Z Formula on Facebook

Spread the Word

Brendan Elias

Brendan has been importing products from China since 2001. He built a 7-figure a year business by selling the imported products on eBay and Amazon working as little as 10 hours per week. For the last 10 years, he has been teaching people to run their own business from home by importing goods from China and selling them locally. In that time some students have replaced their incomes, brought new money into their households and some have even become millionaires.

>