How KFC Turned a 65-Year-Old’s Failure Into Billions

0:0065 years old. In his pocket, just a $15

0:04social security check. And in the trunk

0:06of an old 1946 Ford car, a pressure

0:09cooker, some spices, and a secret recipe

0:12written on a stitched piece of paper.

0:14That was all [music] the capital Harlon

0:16Sanders had. This old man had no shop,

0:19no company, no support, only a dream. A

0:23dream [music] the world kept rejecting

0:25again and again, right at the door.

0:28Welcome to Morvex [music] TV. Harlon

0:31David Sanders was born on September 9th,

0:331890 on a small farm near the village of

0:36Henryville, [music] Indiana. His father,

0:39Wilbur Sanders, worked in the fields.

0:42But after an accident left him with a

0:43broken leg, he began [music] working as

0:45a butcher. Then in 1895, when Harland

0:49was only 5 years old, his father [music]

0:51died. The entire responsibility of the

0:54household fell onto his mother's

0:56shoulders. She would leave for days at a

0:58time to work in a canning factory. And

1:01back home were three small children. The

1:03oldest among them was Harland. This was

1:06not an ordinary hardship. Finding

1:08sassifras, buds, and wild apples in the

1:10fields just to fill their stomachs.

1:12[music] And going to sleep whenever they

1:14could at night, that was the reality of

1:16those days. But those same circumstances

1:19put a spoon into Harland's hands at a

1:21very young age. By the age of seven, he

1:23was already cooking [music] bread and

1:25vegetables for his younger brother and

1:26sister. His mother taught him how to

1:28make country [music] ham, pan fried

1:30chicken, and homemade biscuits. These

1:33were the very flavors that would one day

1:35become [music] recognized by an entire

1:37world, even though at the time they were

1:39simply a way to fill [music] empty

1:41stomachs. At the age of 10, Harland

1:44began working as a farm laborer. Two

1:46years later, his mother remarried, but

1:49Harland never got along with his

1:51stepfather. The house remained [music]

1:52filled with constant tension. By the

1:54time he reached the seventh grade, he

1:56left school, and at 13 years old, he

2:00left home altogether. He made his way to

2:03Indianapolis, [music]

2:04where he found work painting horsedrawn

2:06carriages. Later, he worked as a laborer

2:09on a farm in southern Indiana. [music]

2:11a 13-year-old boy with no family

2:13support, no education, alone on the

2:16roads [music] of the world. And this was

2:18only the beginning of a long cycle, one

2:21that would continue for the next 30

2:22years. In 1906, at 16 years old, Harland

2:27lied about his age and enlisted in the

2:29United States Army. He was sent to Cuba.

2:32The very next year, in [music] 1907, he

2:35was honorably discharged from the army.

2:38and now began the long period of jobs

2:40[music] that would define the next

2:41chapter of his life. Harland worked as a

2:44railroad fireman, shoveling coal into

2:46steam [music] engines. At night, he

2:49studied law through correspondence

2:50courses. And in Little [music] Rock,

2:53Arkansas, he even practiced law for

2:55nearly 3 years. But that career slipped

2:57away, too. During a court case, Harlon

3:00got into a physical fight with his own

3:02client. His reputation was ruined. After

3:05that, he began selling insurance and he

3:08was fired from that job as well. At the

3:11age of 30, Harlon started a ferry

3:13service on the Ohio River. He thought

3:15that maybe this time he had [music]

3:17finally found something stable, but then

3:19a bridge was built nearby and the ferry

3:22business became unnecessary.

3:24Next, he started a business making

3:26acetylene lamps. Once again, it looked

3:29like another opportunity. But at that

3:31very moment, electricity began reaching

3:34rural America, and the need for those

3:36lamps disappeared. Every time it seemed

3:39as if his life had finally gotten back

3:41on track, something new came crashing

3:43into the road ahead. It no longer

3:45[music] looked like a simple streak of

3:46bad luck. It felt as though no business

3:48in the world had been made for Harland

3:50Sanders. Eventually, he took up the work

3:54of running a gas station. First in

3:56Nicholasville and then in the town of

3:58Corbin, Kentucky. And this was where the

4:01turning point of his life was about to

4:02begin. A turning point that even Harland

4:05himself could not yet see coming.

4:07[music] The gas station in Corbin sat at

4:09the foothills of the Appalachian

4:11Mountains in an area locals themselves

4:13called Hell's Halfacre. Tough, ruthless,

4:17and filled with competition. Harlon

4:19Sanders began managing this Shell Oil

4:21Company station and noticed that [music]

4:23passing travelers kept repeating the

4:25same complaint. There was nowhere decent

4:27to eat in the entire area. In 1930, at

4:31the age of 40, Harlon Sanders took

4:33[music] the dining table from his own

4:35home, placed it in the front section of

4:37the gas station, and began [music]

4:39serving truck drivers meals of country

4:41ham and steak. The idea was simple, but

4:44the taste was good enough that people

4:47began stopping from farther and farther

4:49away. The crowds grew so large that a

4:52separate Sanders Cafe had to be opened

4:54across from the gas station. And now the

4:56menu included chicken fried in an iron

4:58skillet, the same kind of chicken

5:00Harlland's mother had made [music]

5:01during his childhood. But life in Corbin

5:03was not peaceful. Nearby, a rival gas

5:06station owner named Matt Stewart

5:08repeatedly painted over Sanders

5:10advertising signs. One day, [music]

5:12Sanders received word that Stuart was

5:14once again damaging one of the signs.

5:17Sanders went to the scene with two Shell

5:19officials. The confrontation escalated.

5:22Stuart threw down his paintbrush,

5:23[music]

5:24grabbed a gun, and fired. One of the

5:26Shell Company officials, Robert [music]

5:28Gibson, was killed. Sanders fired back

5:31and wounded Stuart. This was not some

5:34distant story. These were the very

5:36streets where Sanders cooked food for

5:39customers every day. And despite all of

5:41it, the business did not stop. It kept

5:44growing. In 1935, the governor of

5:47Kentucky, recognizing Sanders service

5:49and his food, awarded him the honorary

5:52title of Kentucky Colonel. It was purely

5:55a ceremonial title, [music] but that

5:56title would eventually become the

5:58foundation of the identity the entire

6:00world would one day recognize. [music]

6:02As the crowds continued to grow, Sanders

6:05transformed the gas station into a 142

6:07seat motel and restaurant, Sanders Court

6:10and Cafe. But one problem [music]

6:12remained, and over time, it became

6:14impossible to ignore. Cooking chicken in

6:17an iron [music] skillet took 30 minutes.

6:19During busy periods, customers could not

6:22wait [music] that long. They would

6:24simply turn around and leave. Every

6:26customer who walked away made [music]

6:28one thing painfully clear to Sanders.

6:30His best disc had become the biggest

6:33obstacle to his business. Sanders spent

6:35the next several years trying to solve

6:37that problem. experiment after

6:39experiment, [music]

6:40failure after failure, until in 1939, he

6:44[music] discovered a way to cook chicken

6:46using an industrial pressure cooker. The

6:48cooking time [music] dropped

6:49dramatically, while the flavor became

6:51even better than before. During this

6:54same period, he also developed a blend

6:56of 11 spices, a mixture that remains

6:59hidden from the world to this day. This

7:02was the taste that turned a small

7:04roadside cafe in [music] Corbin into a

7:06name known across Kentucky. During this

7:08same journey in 1952, [music] Sanders

7:11arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah. There

7:15he met Pete Harmon, a restaurant owner

7:17who until [music] then had been selling

7:19hamburgers. Sanders made him the same

7:22offer he had already made to hundreds of

7:24others. [music] But Harmon said yes. He

7:27began selling Sanders chicken made with

7:29the blend of 11 spices in his

7:31restaurant. [music] And in return, he

7:33began paying Sanders for every chicken

7:35sold. That agreement became the world's

7:38first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise.

7:41The result was remarkable. Within a

7:43year, Harmon's sales had tripled, and

7:46the chicken became the bestselling item

7:48on his [music] menu. It even outsold the

7:50burgers. A local sign painter named

7:52Rodney Anderson suggested that the

7:54chicken should carry the name Kentucky.

7:56The idea was to make it stand apart from

7:58ordinary southern fried chicken while

8:01also giving it a distinct [music]

8:02southern identity. That name would

8:05eventually become the name of the entire

8:07brand. News of Harmon's success began to

8:10spread and for Sanders, knocking on

8:12doors started becoming easier than

8:14before. With every new agreement, the

8:17number of franchises continued to rise.

8:20By 1957,

8:22Kentucky Fried Chicken was beginning to

8:24build its identity around the red and

8:26white bucket. The same image that is

8:28still recognized around the world today.

8:30The man who only a few years earlier had

8:33been sleeping in his car [music]

8:35was now being contacted directly by

8:37restaurant owners across the country. By

8:401964, [music] the number of franchises

8:43had grown beyond 600. But growth on that

8:45scale created a new problem. It was

8:48becoming too much for one aging man to

8:50manage alone. Accounting, quality

8:53control, new agreements, all of it had

8:57grown beyond what Sanders could handle

8:59by himself. That same year, in 1964,

9:02[music]

9:03he sold the company to a group of

9:04investors led by John Y, Brown Jr., and

9:08Jack Massie for around $2 million. But

9:11Sanders set one condition. He would

9:13remain the company's brand ambassador

9:15for life, [music] and he would continue

9:17visiting restaurants, checking the

9:19quality of the food. In 1965,

9:22the first British Kentucky Fried Chicken

9:24[music] opened in Preston, England. The

9:27brand was now beginning to spread beyond

9:28the United States. In 1966, the company

9:32was listed on the stock market, and in

9:341969, it reached the New York Stock

9:37Exchange. That day, Colonel Sanders

9:40himself [music] bought the first 100

9:42shares, as if he wanted to become a part

9:44owner once again of the very [music]

9:46thing he had created. But the years

9:48after the sale were not only years of

9:50celebration for Sanders. In 1971, the

9:54company was sold to a liquor company

9:56[music] called Hublime. And under the

9:58new owners, the quality of the food

10:00began to decline. [music]

10:02Colonel Sanders, now close to 80 years

10:04old, refused to remain silent. He openly

10:07[music] attacked the company's gravy,

10:09calling it inferior sticky stuff, and he

10:12publicly criticized the owners. In 1975,

10:16the company even filed a lawsuit against

10:18him, demanding that he stop criticizing

10:20them. [music] But the court dismissed

10:22the case. The man, who had spent his

10:24entire life pursuing one particular

10:26[music] taste, never stopped fighting

10:28for the quality of his own brand. Even

10:30though the company no longer belonged to

10:32him, even in his final years, Colonel

10:36Sanders traveled [music] 250,000 miles

10:38every year visiting restaurants around

10:40the world and monitoring [music] the

10:42brand that carried his name, the white

10:44suit, the white beard, the black tie.

10:49That image had now become fixed in the

10:51[music] minds of millions of people

10:52around the world. On December 16th,

10:551980, at the age of 90, Colonel Harlon

10:58Sanders died in Louisville, Kentucky. He

11:01was buried [music] at Cave Hill

11:03Cemetery, wearing the same familiar

11:05white suit in which the world had come

11:07to know [music] him. Even after Colonel

11:08Sanders death, the ownership story of

11:11Kentucky Fried Chicken did not end

11:12there. In 1982, Hubine [music] itself

11:16was acquired by the major tobacco and

11:17food company R.J. Reynolds and Kentucky

11:20Fried Chicken became part of yet another

11:22large corporate [music] structure. But

11:24this ownership did not last very long

11:26either. After acquiring Nabiscoco, R.J.

11:29Reynolds needed to reduce its heavy

11:30debt. [music] And in July 1986, it sold

11:34Kentucky Fried Chicken to PepsiCo for

11:36around $840 [music] million. PepsiCo

11:39already owned Pizza Hut since 1977 and

11:42Taco [music] Bell since 1978.

11:44Now, all three brands were under the

11:46same corporate umbrella. In 1991, the

11:49official name Kentucky Fried Chicken was

11:51shortened to KFC. But even under

11:54PepsiCo, things were not entirely

11:56simple. Running restaurants and selling

11:59beverages proved to be two very [music]

12:01different businesses. Competition in the

12:04United States continued to grow.

12:06Relationships with franchises began to

12:08deteriorate. And PepsiCo's leadership

12:10came [music] to believe that the

12:12restaurant business demanded a very

12:14different direction from its core

12:15beverage [music] and snack operations.

12:18In January 19th, 97, PepsiCo announced

12:21that it would separate its three

12:23restaurant brands, KFC, Pizza Hut, and

12:26Taco Bell, into a separate independent

12:28[music]

12:29company. On October 6th, 1997, the

12:33separation was completed and a new

12:35company [music] came into existence,

12:36Tricon Global Restaurants. Later in

12:392002, it became known as Yum Brands. The

12:43company is still based in Louisville,

12:45Kentucky today, the same city where

12:47Colonel Sanders was buried. [music]

12:49Today, KFC has spread to more than 150

12:52countries [music] with more than 25,000

12:55restaurants. Yum. Brands, which is now

12:58the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut,

13:01and Taco Bell, operates more than 60,000

13:04restaurants around [music] the world.

13:06The brand that once traveled from door

13:08to door with a pressure cooker in the

13:10trunk of an old Ford car is now one of

13:12the largest chicken fast food empires in

13:15the world. That image of the white

13:17bearded man seen on streets everywhere,

13:20the secret recipe [music] of 11 spices

13:22and the chicken served in a bucket are

13:25no longer simply the identity of a

13:27company. They have [music] become a

13:28cultural symbol. There was no single

13:31moment in Harlon Sanders story when

13:33everything suddenly changed. This is a

13:36story of falling down and getting back

13:39up again and again for more [music] than

13:4130 years. Losing his law career,

13:44watching his lamp business collapse,

13:46seeing his ferry service become useless,

13:48a shooting, [music] his restaurant being

13:50auctioned away, and then at the age of

13:5365, starting all over again with empty

13:56pockets. The most remarkable part is

13:59that his real story begins exactly where

14:02most people would have [music] decided

14:04that their story was over. Every closed

14:07door pushed him toward the next one. And

14:09that persistence eventually took the

14:11shape of a bucket recognized today in

14:14every corner of the world. After Sanders

14:16death, the company changed owners many

14:19times. Its name changed, too. But that

14:22same secret recipe, born in [music] the

14:24kitchen of a poor childhood, still lives

14:27on today inside every [music] bucket. If

14:30you enjoyed this story, don't forget to

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14:34next story is going to be even more

14:36[music] interesting. Thank you.