The Colonel

I love me some KFC... There's nothing better than a bucket of the original recipe chicken with some biscuits and a side of gravy. And of course you can't think of KFC without thinking of the Colonel. Colonel Harland Sanders. The man who came up with those 11 original herbs & spices.  He passed away in 1980 but KFC still uses his likeness as their logo.

The Colonel was born in 1890, the oldest of three boys. His father died suddenly when he was just five years old. His mother took work in a tomato-canning factory, and the young Harland was required to cook for the family. He dropped out of school at age 12, right around the time his mother remarried. His new stepfather was abusive and Sanders moved to live with an uncle. At age 15 he lied about his age and joined the army.

At age 18 he married and soon had three children. He worked a variety of jobs to support his young family, but after his boss fired him for insubordination while he was on a trip, his wife stopped writing him letters. He then learned that she had left him, given away all their furniture and household goods, and taken the children back to her parent’s home. Her brother wrote Sanders a letter saying, "She had no business marrying a no-good fellow like you who can’t hold a job."

At age 40 he opened a small service station in Kentucky along a busy Highway 25. In the small residence attached to the service station, he'd cook and serve meals to weary travelers and soon became well known for his cooking skills. He became so popular that seven years later he built a hotel and a 142 seat restaurant across the highway . Two years after opening it burnt to the ground and Sanders had to rebuild.

Then when he was 65, Interstate 75 was built and the once busy highway suddenly was bypassed. The restaurant failed for lack of business. At the age when most people retire, the Colonel took $105 from his first Social Security check and set up a franchise business for his famous fried chicken recipe. Ten years later he sold Kentucky Fried Chicken for $2 million.

The early death of his father...
An abusive stepfather...
A failed marriage...
A failed career....
A fire...
A failed restuarant...
Old age...

None of it stopped the Colonel. So why should the challenges you face stop you?