Fred Smith - FedEx
Imagine Paris Hilton not being famous for going to parties; not filling the pages of gossip rags; not appearing in multiple seasons of the insipid TV show Simple Life; not famous for having a personal sex video go public; and not, as the cliché goes, famous for being famous. Imagine instead that she attends an Ivy League university and enrolls in ROTC. After graduation, she becomes an officer in the U.S. Marine Corp. She does two tours of duty in Iraq where she is wounded three times.
After all that, while still in her twenties, she risks her entire inheritance to found a company few give any chance of success. Yet the business grows to be one of the most respected major corporations in the world. In the process, she becomes a billionaire. Hard to imagine? Except for a different war, that's the story of Fred Smith, founder of FedEx.
The creation and success of FedEx isn't remarkable only because of the founder's personal story. It also stands out as a story of business financing, from growing an idea into a Fortune 500 company almost overnight. Just consider the concept from the beginning–overnight delivery of any package anywhere in the United States. You would need the entire infrastructure in place before the first package ships! The planes, the maintenance crews, delivery trucks, sorting facility, pilots, and major changes to Federal regulations all have to line up before you woo your first customer.
Plus it's an entirely new concept. Today it's almost impossible to imagine business without overnight shipping. At the time Fred Smith started Federal Express, many questioned the need for such a service. The story of this company's start-up is the story of Fred Smith.