SYNOPSIS:
·
Introduction
·
Childhood
·
Life getting better
·
Grand success of the KFC
·
Death of the legend
·
KFC Nowadays
INTRODUCTION:
“Colonel Harland David Sanders “is an
American Entrepreneur who was the founder of the KFC. While reading his
biography I get to know two things. The first thing is to never lose hope at
any situation, no matter how many obstacles comes, we have to go through it.
The other one is “success doesn’t depend
upon our Age”. So let us see in
detail about him.
CHILDHOOD:
Harland
David Sanders was born on September 09,1890
on Henryville, Indiana. We should agree that Sanders
childhood was very tough. First, he was not the only child in
the family, their family was not also
very rich. He was the oldest of three children born to Wilbur
David and Margaret Ann Sanders. His father worked part
time, doing some errands of farmers in Henryville. Mother did not work, as she
had to take care of the children. So their family was in the running somewhat
fine .
The
problem became very serious when his father of Harland Sanders suddenly died.
In
1895 one summer afternoon, Sanders’ father came back home with a fever and died
later that day. This was when our legend is only 6 years old. His life changed
dramatically, his mother went to work to
a tomato-canning factory to feed the family somehow. And Harland Sanders was
required to be a babysitter and take care of younger brother and sister at
home.
Then
he went working to the tomato canning factory with his mother and after some
years he became a chef in the same company. When his mother remarried, he
escaped from home because his stepfather beat him very hardly and tortured him.
Sanders volunteered for the U.S. Army at the age of 15 years. He served in the U.S.
Army and ended his service in Cuba. During his early years Sanders tried very
hard to come up in his life but failed in everything he stepped in. He had to
work as a steamboat pilot, insurance agent, farmer and etc. Finally, he found a
good regular job as a fireman in the U.S. railway company.
Life
is Getting Better:
In
1908, having stable income Harland Sanders married Josephine King. He had three
children, a son, Harland who died at an early age, and two daughters, Mildred
Sanders Ruggles and Margaret Sanders.
After
a while he failed in that job also and was fired. His wife Josephine left him
taken the children back to her parents’ home. Her brother
later wrote Harland a letter where he said: “She had no business marrying a
no-good fellow like you who can’t hold a job”. After that he tried a lot of
other jobs, but did not find any, which he could work at for a long time.
At 40 years Harland had
to change dozens of occupations. One time Harland Sanders was trying to obtain
an education enrolling in law courses, but for an unknown reason he did not
finish them.
He
was already in his 40s and for long time our legend was in despaire and
depressed. Most of his life already passed, but he still was a man, who made no
difference, did not have enough money to live in pleasure and wealth. He was
disappointed in life and, of course, he wanted to change it.
Harland Sanders bought a service station, motel and
cafe at Corbin, a town in Kentucky about 25 miles from the Tennessee border .
It was very small but got it in an very
nice location, Colonel Sanders began serving meals to his clients in the living
quarters, because he did not have a restaurant. He was cooking chicken dishes
and other meals such as country ham and steaks in the kitchen. It was called
“Kentucky Fried Chicken of Harland Sanders.” All customers noted the quality of
its seasoning, which he prepared from 11 different spices. Life began to
improve. All customers noted the quality of its seasoning,
which he prepared from 11 different spices. Life began to improve. In
order to increase his income, Harland bought a pressure cooker this was his
first pressure cooker Usually it took about 30 minutes to prepare chicken, but
now it’s time has been reduced to 9 minutes.
A significant event in the life of Sanders happened
in 1935, when the governor of Kentucky, Ruby Laffoon, awarded Harland the title
of Kentucky Colonel for services to the state. in fact people
all over the county were talking about the “national dish” of the state from
Colonel Harland Sanders. In 1937, he opened the motel Sanders Court & Cafe,
which was also an independent fast food restaurant. Fast food restaurant
McDonald’s and Sanders Court & Cafe were not comparable. Because Colonel
Sanders spent about 10-15 minutes to prepare an order. So it could not be
called a fully functional fast food restaurant. In 1947, Harland
and Josephine divorced.
In 1949,
Sanders finally married his secretary Claudia Ledington. In 1949, Sanders was honoured
once again with the title of Kentucky colonel, this time by Lieutenant Governor
Lawrence Weather by. Being a Colonel, Harland Sanders
developed his appearance starting to wear a white suit and black bow tie. And
nowadays Harland Sanders is being seen on the logos of KFC. Once
even the building of motel burned down. It was built up again quickly and
resumed its job within a few months after the accident. The
state government tried to help Harland because his fried chicken was a
showplace in Kentucky.
n 1956, there was completed the construction of
Interstate 75, bypassing Corbin. Sanders’ restaurant was out of sight from
passing by travelers. The number of customers decreased dramatically. The
once-successful business rolled down. He was forced to sell the property for
$75,000 to pay his debts. He was almost broke when he was 66 years old, living
off a monthly Social Security check of $105 and some savings. After a while
Sanders decided to move to Shelbyville, Kentucky.
Grand success of the KFC:
He
came to the conclusion that can sell his recipe to other restaurants. With
nothing to lose, Sanders took his spices and pressure cooker and travelled
throughout the U.S. in his 1946 Ford.
He
started visiting other restaurants of America .It took a long
time before he could find the first customer. Under the contract, Sanders
received just 5 cents for each of his sold chicken. After 4 years Kentucky
Fried Chicken was at the peak of glory and the old Colonel decided to sell the
corporation to a private investor John Y. Brown, Jr. Under the deal, he
received $ 2 million in cash and remains the official face of the company for
which he was paid about 250,000 dollars a year. Colonel Sander’s net worth
estimated at $3.5 million. He just had to meet with the media, customers,
employees, in general to lead marketing.
Death of the legend:
In
1980, at the age of 90 years, Harland Sanders died. In recent years he was travelling,
playing golf and ran their own restaurant Claudia Sanders’ Dinner House with
his wife. He got disappointed at KFC, because he thought that in the pursuit of
the lowest price and speed the owners went to a compromise on the quality
of chickens. However, after the death of Colonel the story was not over.
KFC
Nowadays:
In
1986, it was acquired, by the famous Pepsi Co. In 2002 the KFC was acquired by
Yum! Brands. In addition to KFC, the company owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell
restaurants. David C. Novak is the current Chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands.
Currently,
Yum! Brands employs more than 1,500,000 employees and the net income as of 2013
amounted to $1.091 billion.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading Colonel Harland
Sanders biography and amazing history of KFC Company and its inspired you to
new discoveries.
