"A Yale University management professor
in response to student Fred Smith's paper
proposing a reliable overnight delivery service:
The concept is interesting and well-formed,
but in order to earn better than a 'C',
the idea must be feasible."
-- Frederick W. Smith
[Classic post from 6-29-17]
It's really easy to laugh at this quote now because everyone knows about FedEx. In 1971, Fred Smith began Federal Express and in 1973 began overnight service on April 17th. That first night only 18 packages were carried, and the rest is history as they say. Ten years later in 1983, they passed one billion dollars in sales revenue. That was over 29 years ago. Last year it was almost 40 billion.
The best way I've ever heard of thinking of a billion dollars is that if you had a billion dollars and you spent $10,000 per day, every day, seven days a week, it would take you 274 years to spend it all assuming it was gaining zero interest the entire time! To spend it all in a lifetime, you would have to spend around $50,000 a day. At that rate, it would still take you 54 years to spend it.
J. K. Rowling wrote a book called Harry Potter and was turned down by the first 12 publishers that it was sent to by a literary agent. A year later, one publisher took it and the rest is history as they say. J. K. Rowling went from a single mother on social security at the poverty level to now a billionaire.
How many people do you think can recognize a billion-dollar enterprise in its seed form?
Do you know anyone who might have a billion dollar idea? How about you? How about a million dollar idea?
Have you ever saw an invention, product or service and then said that you had that idea some years ago?
There are seeds in all of us to excel in certain areas when we allow them to be; when we decide to do it; when we are willing to risk. You might even be the next billionaire in the seed.
"Throw Your Dreams Into Space Like A Kite, And You Do Not Know What It Will Bring Back, A New Life, A New Friend, A New Love, A New Country." -- Anais Nin
Spread Some Joy Today--"Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing." -- William Shakespeare
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