Do you know the story of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Harland Sanders? This infamous tale is full of triumph, defeat and really underlines the idea that it’s never too late to chase your dreams. 
Harland David Sanders, better known as “The Colonel,” is synonymous with KFC but it wasn’t always this way. Had Sanders decided to give up after a failure or two, he probably would never have seen his dream come to fruition. You see, he didn’t franchise his first KFC until 1952 when he was 62 years old.
What’s even more impressive is that Sanders experienced defeat and defeat, but didn’t give up.
Pretty amazing, right? American society and popular culture as a whole are obsessed with youth, but in the world of business, you can succeed at any time. Whether you’ve just retired or are midway through your career and realize that you want to do something else, pursuing something that you’re truly passionate about is possible.
So what happened to Colonel Sanders? Let’s go back in time for a moment.
Sanders’ childhood was not a life of luxury. His father died when he was six and Sanders was tasked with cooking and caring for his siblings. He later dropped out of school and became a farmhand. He then cycled through a number of careers in adulthood. He joined the navy, worked for the railroad, attempted to become a lawyer and founded a ferry boat company.
At the age of 40, Sanders was the owner of a popular gas station in Corbin, Kentucky. But when he wasn’t busy fueling up customers’ cars, Sanders was in the kitchen perfecting his recipe for fried chicken. Now, this was before the deep fryer that is used in every fast food restaurant today. Instead, people would fry foods in a cast iron pan in their kitchen. This process was time-consuming, however, and it was difficult to determine when your food was fully cooked. Certainly, there was no way to automate and standardize frying like we have today.
But Sanders was a sort of culinary wizardry. With the help of Winston Shelton, the pressure cooker was invented. This process took years and a lot of failure time and time again. But eventually, the duo created a cooker that would later develop into the modern deep fryer. This revolutionized the culinary world and allowed Sanders to franchise his patented cooking method.
But Sanders didn’t stop there. He hit the road with his secret recipe and cooking method. He sold them to restaurants around the world, allowing them to advertise his chicken while he collected a percentage of the revenue. This was the start of modern-day franchises.
Slowly but surely his legend grew, and eventually, The Colonel had turned a secret family recipe into a world-renowned brand. Today, KFC has over 18,800 outlets all over the world.
Entrepreneurship doesn’t have an age limit. If you have a great idea that you’re passionate about, pursue it and share it with others. Let the story of Harland David Sanders inspire you. Who knows? Maybe your gift to the world will also be finger-lickin’ good.
