Young Harland was the oldest of three children when his father unexpectedly passed away. While living, his father worked as a farmer and then a butcher to support the family in their Henryville Indiana home. Many responsibilities fell on his mother, and even though he was only 5 years old, Harland was given the responsibility of preparing meals for his younger siblings. By the age of 7 Harold was preparing full meals before he took on a job as a farmhand at 10. Three years later he left home to pursue a painting job prior to moving in with an uncle and accepting a streetcar conductor position. By the end of that same year, at the age of about 15 he joined the army using counterfeit documents. Harland was able to serve in Cuba for some time but was provided an honorable discharge. By the age of 17, he was also working as a blacksmith in Ohio and eventually landed two railroad positions.
Harland met his first wife, Josephine King, while working on the railroads. They had three children which included two daughters, and a son that passed away from infected tonsils. Like his numerous jobs, Harland’s marriage did not last to Josephine, and he went on to marry Claudia Ledington-Price. He went on to be a fireman and then a lawyer residing in Arkansas. He began to see success, but it was short-lived due to a courtroom fight with his client. His following job as a salesman for Prudential Insurance ended due to his defiance.
Once again, he rose like a Phoenix from the ashes to start a successful ferry boat company which he later sold his shares to begin an acetylene lamp company. Success for this new company was cut short after another company began selling electric lamps. Down on his luck, Harland was given an opportunity to run a Shell Oil Company rent-free only having to return a percentage of his profit to the company. He also began to provide meals from the station, and it was around this time in 1935 that Harland David Sanders was commissioned by the state governor as a Kentucky Colonel. The meals that he served at his station started to gain attention from people near and far! The popularity of his food led him to purchase a motel and restaurant in North Carolina that could hold over 140 people. Even though it burned down, he rebuilt it and developed a “secret recipe” for his fried chicken. Everything was going well until World War II started, and the state of the economy forced him to shut his doors permanently. He continued in the food industry by managing cafeterias owned by the government. Harland decided to develop a franchise from his “secret recipe” of fried chicken to the largest restaurant in the area and their sales increased by 74%!
At the age of 65, on a fixed income of $105 a month, Harland decided to build his franchise by traveling the country, sleeping in his car, soliciting clients to purchase his friend chicken recipe. He submitted his recipe to 1,009 restaurants before he found a buyer. From that point however, his popularity spread across the nation and various countries. He trademarked the phrase “It’s finger lickin’ good’ in 1963. At the age of 73 Harland had grown overwhelmed with success and sold his corporation for $2 Million to function solely as the Brand Ambassador. Harland David Sanders, more popularly known as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken, passed away at the age of 90 from acute Leukemia in 1980. His legacy consists of almost 20,000 Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants currently spanning 131 countries with over $23 Billion in revenue!
Julie Andrews quote “perseverance is falling 19 times and succeeding on the 20th!” Colonel Sanders mostly likely wished it were that simple, however to experience the level of success that he reached it required even more from him. In an ideal world, everyone would get a trophy and celebrate victory. In reality; more specifically the classroom, we will encounter failure. When we decide that no matter the magnitude of challenge that presents itself, we are going to get back up and keep pressing on then we have perseverance…One of the key elements needed to form the compounds that compose a Next Level Educator!
The Jeremy Anderson Group