I am of the opinion that entrepreneurs must be scholars of all the world. Part of my own learning, as well as part of staying motivated, is studying the experiences of other entrepreneurs. Laughing and learning from both their successes and failures, is a key benefit of hearing their stories.
One of the entrepreneur stories I like the best comes from Fred Smith, the initial founder of the wildly successful shipping and delivery company FedEx. The story goes that early on in the forming of the company, despite having gotten a lot of financing, the company was out of cash.
In an airport with about ¼ of the money he would need to pay employees that month, Smith boarded a last-minute plane to Las Vegas, and put his money on the roulette wheel. As fate would have it, Smith was lucky that day, and won enough by gambling to make his payroll.
Having enough money to pay employees, and continue operations, FedEx grew from there to be one of the world’s biggest shipping and delivery companies. However, we never would have seen any of that happen without a bold move by Smith, and without some good ol’ gamblers luck.
What’s the moral of Fred Smith’s story? Though some of you may run out and start gambling your bank money, I’m not sure anyone would say that this was a smart business strategy. Instead, the lesson I take from this is to have faith in your idea, and be willing to take great risks (even personal ones) to see it through.
Have faith. Have fun. And work as hard as you can to make your company’s dreams come true. When things get bad, you can always think of young Fred Smith, gambling the future of company at the roulette wheel.
