Blog

KFC – Finger Licking Good! 

I am sure that by now you would have been tired of hearing the phrase “Finger Licking Good”, of course I am talking about KFC, one of the largest food chain in the world. And I am also sure that most of you are very much aware of the motivational story of Col Sanders who made it all happen through his commitment, passion, perseverance, belief and a lot more of such high sounding words :). I do find the story pretty interesting though. Atleast this is how the version I have heard goes.

The Story, where it all started

Col Sanders was in his 40’s when he realized his bank balance was below a 100 dollars and decided that it was not the kind of life he wanted to lead anymore. Deciding that he moves on to a new venture, of course KFC which was not known KFC back then. He always had a passion for food and that perhaps looked at him as the only lucrative option for a business, he had a brilliant recipe for chicken which sold big and he realized that it had a huge potential and went out to sell the recipe for various hotels in return of a royalty for every dish sold.

The challenges and the result! 

Of course when you want to try something like this without a brand, without a recognition, you get laughed at, people won’t believe and forget someone buying something from you, they wouldn’t even entertain you to listen to the story. Naturally all hell broke loose and here he was – Col Sanders with about 1200 rejections on his recipe and still going strong, amended his strategies of a sale till he got one customer and then the other and then the other and now today, it is a motivational story. What made this remarkable success happen?

Belief

When everyone around you starts giving up, when there is no one to support you, there always is and there always will be one person to rely upon. I am not going to say it is your family – It is yourself. You have to keep believing in yourself no matter how bad things seem to be. You got to keep going even if people make fun of you. Sanders did it, more than 1200 times and more times even after that. What holds us back is the belief whether we can do something. ( You have got to believe in yourself when no one else does!  )

Patience/Perseverance

The man was there to here about a 1200 NO’s and was still willing to keep going. Something in him kept telling him that there was a way out. You may argue that it was motivation or desperation or realization or any other word you may prefer to use, but he did hang in there till he got a YES! Most times in life, it is not about whether things work or not – Left to themselves, things never work, we got to find a way to make them work!

Giving a crap to the society

I am sure that a lot of people laughed, people presented well lined out facts as to how it was stupid and would never work. Sometimes you got to realize that you need to turn a deaf ear to the surroundings, you got to pretend that they are not even there and they are not even talking. If that gives you the peace of mind, that is what the society is for – Go ahead, keep going. (People will make you feel like crap but only if you let them! )

Cutting down all other options

Most times while taking a decision, we often think of a Plan B in case the Plan A doesn’t work. We all need a safety cushion to fall back on. What if Sanders had a job as a restaurant cook which paid him a decent amount, what if he had an opportunity to win a lottery and so many other what if’s that could have set him off track. We would have never had a KFC and we would have never heard of the phrase this vividly. Sometimes cutting yourself out of safety exits might be the most essential thing for a success.

You are never too old to chase a dream! 

I have heard this often, people say that they can’t do something cos they have x, y ,z reasons and the most popular amongst them is that they are too old, either they don’t have the energy or they have other commitments in life. Show me one person who doesn’t! We all have commitments, we all have things to do and places to go. But as long as we have reasons as to why we cannot do something, we never will do that something. The secret lies in moving ahead, reaching out to ourselves and realizing that the dream is bigger than these reasons! (The only thing standing between you and your goal! )

Related :

The 4 minute mile – IMPOSSIBLE?