The history and life of Colonel Sanders and the KFC
Who does not know Kentucky Fried Chickn, also known as KFC? These food establishments that sell fried chicken are famous everywhere. Because the taste of fried chicken is delicious and addictive! But you know, behind KFC there is the figure of a man with an ambition. He is Harland David Sanders or more familiarly called Colonel Sanders. Without his hard work, KFC would not exist as it is now.
Colonel Sanders’s fight to establish KFC is not as easy as he imagines. He had to go through several ups and downs, even his fried chicken recipe had been rejected more than a thousand times! But this businessman never gave up. From him, we can learn to achieve dreams diligently. Let’s look at the full story.
Colonel Sanders was born in a family of limited resources, so he had to work from a young age.
Sanders was born in Kentucky, United States, in 1890. His mother worked as a tailor and a factory employee. While his father died when he was 5 years old. To stay, he had to perform occasional work as a goalkeeper and parking assistant with low salaries. In 1906, Sanders joined the Army and sent to Cuba until his retirement.
However, his pension was not enough to live. That is why Sanders joined the railroad firefighters and tried luck being a lawyer. But unfortunately, the salary he won was still far from the standard. Finally he stopped being a lawyer and opened a service station in 1929. Together with that business, Sanders began to come into contact with the culinary business.
At 39 he opened his first food business called "Sanders Café".
While directing a service station, Sanders cooks and sells food to the people who stop there. The menu that is served is fried chicken, ham, chickpeas, quinger and cookies that are still hot. Sanders’ cunning in the kitchen made him famous. This man decided to close his service station and open a culinary business called Sanders Café. For the first time, he could prove success.
Sanders’ business grew slowly. Especially in 1939, he found an infallible way of frying chicken. Sanders use a pressure cooker so you can cook chicken quickly for your customers. It also began to develop KFC fried chicken recipes that use 11 ingredients until today secrets. Thanks to its success, the Sanders restaurant was about to buy percent sixty -four thousand dollars. But the colonel rejected the tempting offer because he wanted to manage his own business. Unfortunately, in the 1950s, Sanders declared bankruptcy and had to sell his restaurant at cheap prices. As a result, he fell back into poverty and was forced to start his business again from scratch.
He traveled through America offering his fried chicken recipe, which was rejected 1,009 times!
After his fall, Sanders was selling his fried chicken recipe to several restaurants. I only asked for a commission of 4 cents for each fried chicken sold. But unfortunately, Sanders’ offer was never approved. In fact, it was rejected 1,009 times! But he never surrendered.
With his body weakened by aging, Sanders walked through several restaurants. Finally he managed to work with Pete Harman, a friend with whom he succeeded immediately after helping him spread his recipe. After that, other parts were interested in buying the recipe.
At 62 he managed to establish KFC and today his brand has many branches and is famous worldwide.
Sanders’s fight for years finally paid off. On September 24, 1952, he managed to open a KFC restaurant. It didn’t spend much time for this restaurant to become popular. Because the fried chicken you sell is so delicious! In 1963, KFC had 600 branches in several places.
As the number of KFC branches increases, Sanders’ age also increases. It was difficult for him to take care of his business because he was already old. Finally, he sold his KFC franchise business to John Brown Junior and a millionaire, Jack Massey, for one million dollars. In addition, Sanders also earned a monthly salary of forty thousand dollars throughout his life. He could live comfortably and properly until he finally died in 1980, at the age of 90 years.
Without a doubt we can learn important things in Colonel Sanders’ life history. Thanks to their continuous fight, now millions of people around the world can enjoy the delicious KFC fried chicken. Always remember the figure of Sanders to get more excited in the fight for your dreams.
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