federal express
Federal Express
Beginning
Vocabulary
By Tony Robbins
Federal Express
Federal Express. They’re here today because Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express, did not believe in failure. He knew that everything was an outcome; it was simply a result.
Yale University
When he went to the business school of Yale University, he came up with this idea for Federal Express.
Well some of the best professors of business in the country teach there. You know what Fred’s instructor gave him? A “C-” for his project report.
The professor said it was an absurd idea, it was ridiculous. No one would ever pay for overnight packages like that when they could use the US Mail.
Investment
Fortunately for Fred, didn’t look at that as failure. He looked at that as a result. And he decided that he was going to still go for it. So he took all the money he had, and he invested it in this company.
First Day
On the first day of business, Federal Express planned to deliver 167 packages. They delivered seven — five of them they sent to themselves, from themselves. So there were only two public customers out of that first batch.
And he’s got tremendous amounts of money on the line; we’re talking about airplanes. We’re talking about shipping services. We’re talking about employee payroll.
Enhance the Numbers
Now most people would say, “hey buddy. You’d better watch out, you’d better change something. And his approach was, “That’s excellent. We figured out how to send two packages effectively. Now we have to just enhance the numbers.”
And he did not look at it as failure. Can you imagine? Federal Express. It’s now a billion dollar a year corporation.
Why?
Change Approach
Because Fred Smith understood clearly, there are no failures, there are only outcomes. If we change our approach, we can make it the way we want it.
I guarantee you most of the people never could image that it could become a billion dollar company.
But Fred Smith knew that if he kept changing his approach, if he didn’t store it as failure, he could produce any result that he wanted.
Paid Very Well
And by the way, people know there is no such thing as failure get paid very well.
Very well.
Cause they can do things that other people can’t do.
$50 million a Year
And now Fred Smith makes about $50 million a year in personal income.
See if you want to get paid well, you got to learn how to operate from personal power which means there is no failure, there are only outcomes.
Questions
1. What do you know about Yale University? Who teaches there?
2. Did Fred Smith study engineering at Yale University?
3. His professors though he had a great idea. Is this correct or wrong? What did they say?
4. Did Fred agree and give up? What did Fred do?
5. On the first day, FedEx was a success. Yes or no? What happened on the first day?
6. Was Fred under a lot of pressure?
7. Describe Federal Express today.
A. What is the moral or lesson of the story?
B. Have you succeeded at something (work, project, hobby)?
C. Did you make a lot of mistakes? Have you have a lot of failures (or outcomes and results)?
D. Do you know many successful people? How did they become successful? Did they make many mistakes?
