FedEx not an overnight success.

Just came across this link on Twitter and followed it to a thread on Quora: http://economist.com/node/16892040. I had heard this story before but had not heard this quote from Changing How The World Does Business -- a book about the history of FedEx, by Roger Frock. Frock was one of the founding executives at the company.

On page 101 of the book, Frock says:

By mid-July our funds were so meager that on Friday we were down to about $5,000 in the checking account, while we needed $24,000 for the jet fuel payment... When I arrived back in Memphis on Monday morning, much to my surprise, the bank balance stood at nearly $32,000. I asked Fred where the funds had come from, and he responded, "The meeting with the General Dynamics board was a bust and I knew we needed money for Monday, so I took a plane to Las Vegas and won $27,000." I said, "You mean you took our last $5,000-- how could you do that?" He shrugged his shoulders and said, "What difference does it make? Without the funds for the fuel companies, we couldn't have flown anyway." Fred's luck held again. It was not much, but it came at a critical time and kept us in business for another week."

I think that this may be the essence of entrepreneurship, absolute belief in ones business, ones self, and an extraordinary dose of luck. All three were present in the founding of FedEx. Despite having blown through $84M in capital it was the last $5 000 and an unwillingness to fail that made the company and gave us overnight delivery.

Military Service as Preparation for Entrepreneurship

A short but interesting article on how military service in Israel is good preparation for entrepreneurs: http://economist.com/node/16892040. This also seems to be the case for veterans in the U.S., veterans own nearly 3M businesses, 500 000 of which employ an average of more than 10 people. Perhaps you are military and have been thinking of starting your own business, the numbers suggest that you have the right preparation.