Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?"– George Bernard Shaw (wrongly attributed to Robert Kennedy)
SHANGHAI, China – One of my favorite cities on earth is bustling, energetic, brash, rich and cosmopolitan Shanghai.
At the forefront of China’s stunning "economic miracle," it is powered not by Communist politicos but by many rugged entrepreneurs and intrepid dreamers. To me, it represents the limitless possibilities of the future for our whole Asia-Pacific region, kind of like a newer, East Asian version of New York, a dazzling city of dreams.
Colonel Moammar Khaddafy staged a military coup and became the dictator of oil-rich Libya. Colonel Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan wasn’t so lucky in his coup attempts, but he once became a senator of the Philippines.
There’s another truly more famous colonel, whose face is possibly now as popular and ubiquituous as the visage of revolutionary hero Mao Zedong across this vast nation. Here at the glitzy, pedestrians-only Nanjing Road Donglu (Nanjing East Road) and in Shanghai’s other major commercial areas, the face of Colonel Harland David Sanders on KFC restaurants is everywhere.
When I started out in real-estate sales in 1995 to accumulate the capital I needed to invest in my first business, I was inspired by two extraordinary salesmen: America’s life insurance legend, the ethnic Jewish Ben Feldman of New York Life, and Colonel Sanders. Unlike other tycoons who often started out in business in their youth, Colonel Sanders was a late bloomer. At first he went through various odd jobs and ventures without success – he worked as a farmhand, streetcar conductor, soldier, railroad fireman, insurance salesman, steamboat ferry operator, secretary of a chamber of commerce, failed factory owner, failed lawyer, tire salesman and service station operator.
The Colonel Sanders story is an authentic rags-to-riches saga, the type of story that has been replicated so many times and is at the heart of America’s 20th-century rise as the world’s wealthiest superpower. Like Asia’s wealthiest billionaire Li Ka Shing and John Gokongwei Jr., whose dads died when they were kids, Sanders’ butcher father died when he was only five years old. His mother worked by peeling tomatoes in a canning factory and added to her small income by sewing at night. He had his first job at age 10 and dropped out of school at grade six to work full-time.
At an age when most people would only contemplate retirement instead of dreaming up new ventures, Sanders at age 66 came up with his fried chicken recipe and the dream of a new business. Like what Ray Kroc did for McDonald’s, Sanders pioneered the revolutionary concepts of franchising and fast food.
KFC’s long road to success began when Sanders was 40 years old. He started cooking and selling his own style of fried chicken, which he would gradually improve over nine years with his so-called "secret blend of 11 herbs and spices" from a gas station he operated in Corbin, Kentucky, USA. When the fried chicken clicked with customers, he eventually opened a restaurant across the street. His chicken gained more popularity when a restaurant critic wrote about it in the 1930s. Then Kentucky governor Ruby Laffoon gave Sanders an honorary title as "Kentucky’s Colonel," which he relished.
Everywhere Colonel Sanders went he was met by bad luck and rejections, one after another, for a total of 1,008 times! Many restaurant owners threw him out of their establishments, but he never gave up on his dream. He only got his first yes the 1,009th time he offered his concept. After two years of making daily sales calls, sometimes sleeping only in his car, he had signed up only five restaurants but he never, ever gave up his dream.
On his way up the ladder of success, Sanders once assisted a youthful Dave Thomas to save the latter’s failing Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. Thomas later went on to become founder of the equally famous Wendy’s fastfood chain.
By 1960, Sanders had 400 franchisees. By1963, he had 600 restaurants selling his fried chicken. By 1964, future Kentucky governor John Brown Jr. and his business partner bought him out.
Despite his success and his having cashed in by selling the business, Colonel Sanders continued as the famous symbol of KFC and traveled as the brand’s tireless endorser. Records show that the old dreamer traveled as much as 250,000 miles a year, visiting various branches of the fastfood chain. Today, his dream of spreading his fried chicken restaurants has become a tantalizing reality with over 11,000 restaurants in more than 80 countries and territories worldwide, including China.
The famous franchisee of KFC here in China is Thailand’s famed ethnic Chinese taipan Dhanin Chearavanont (Chinese name in Mandarin is Xie Guomin) of the Charoen Pokphand or CP conglomerate (known as "Jeng Da" in Chinese). In 1991, Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC in order to disassociate its brand from the word "fried." But the corporate logo of the dauntless dreamer remains as popular as ever. Like in other parts of the globe, from the posh avenues of Shanghai to the rural boondocks of Tibet or Xinjiang province, Yankee capitalist Colonel Sanders’ face is now more famous than that of Karl Marx here in China and will surely give Mao Zedong a run for his renminbi!
Before his death in 1980, Colonel Sanders also generously shared his fortune through philanthropy. He continued to own the Canadian rights to the fastfood company and set up a foundation in Canada through which he donated his profits to favorite charities like Christian churches, hospitals, the Boy Scouts and the Salvation Army. Decades before Angelina Jolie’s adoption of kids in Cambodia and Africa, Sanders had also adopted 78 foreign orphans. He was not only hardworking and smart, Sanders was a decent, honorable, honest and good capitalist.
Colonel Harland David Sanders not only showed that the true strength of a free-enterprise economy lies in rugged entrepreneurs like him and in their magnanimous philanthropy, but that in life or in business, nothing is impossible for those who dream and are willing to pay the price to attain their goals!