The inspiring life story of KFC’s Colonel Sanders

Rejection the most  ridiculous word which we really cant hear from anyone but in real this is the word we hear mostly. Have you ever  been rejected again and again and at times you get disappointed fromm your life.

IF not then let me tell me you about the  founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken yes you heard it right in this story we will talk about Colonel Harland Sanders  he faced many rejections in his lifetime. But  he learnt from his failures and made this world a better place for him.

Sanders  was born in 1890 in Henryville. When he was six years old, his father passed away leaving Sanders to cook and care for his siblings. In seventh grade, he dropped out of school and left home to go work as a farmhand. Already  turning into a tough cookie.

At 16, he faked his age to enlist in the United States army. After being honorably discharged a year later, he got hired by the railway as a laborer. And also he got fired for fighting with a coworker. While he worked for the railway, he was studying law  but he also ruined this career by being engaged in another fight.

Sanders was forced to move back in with his mom and get a job selling life insurance. And guess what? He also get rejected and fired again for insubordination..But this guy wouldn't give up.

In 1920, he founded a ferry boat company. Later, he tried cashing in his ferry boat business to create a lamp manufacturing company only to find out that another company already sold a better version of his lamp. Poor guy couldn't catch a break.

Also in between he got married at very early age and her wife then left him. Not only suffering rejection but also  he went through emotional turmoil. But this guy learnt from his failures and also he never gived up on his life.

Yes there was a time when he decided to suicide but then he realized he could do one thing perfectly and what was that thing it was cooking.

It wasn't until age 40 that he began selling chicken dishes in a service station. Then he began to advertise his food, an argument with a competitor resulted in a deadly shootout.

Following the war, he tried to franchise his restaurant. His recipe was rejected 1,009 times before anyone accepted it. Sander's "secret recipe" was coined "Kentucky Fried Chicken", and quickly became a hit.

After years of failures and misfortunes, Sanders finally hit it big. KFC expanded internationally and he sold the company for two million dollars ($15.3 million today). Even at this time , Sanders remain central in  KFCs  branding  and his face still appears in their logo. His goatee, white suit and western string tie continue to symbolize delicious country fried chicken all over the world.

At age 90, Sanders passed away from pneumonia. At that time, there were around 6,000 KFC locations in 48 countries. By 2013, there were an estimated 18,000 KFC locations in 118 countries. WOW.

Now it’s the lesson for us we always get disheartened by single rejection. But this person suffered  a lot and not only single times he faced rejection more than thousand times but every time he smiled and took that rejection as his victory and now what he is  we all know. After all these situations he still managed to create the largest food chains in the world.

Now the choice is yours would you let anyone defeat you or you will defeat your own failure???

Till then stay tuned with Monika Haswani  for more such inspirational stories.