Fred Smith

And he wasn't done solving problems yet.

The biography this episode is largely based on ended in 1993, but Fred Smith's story continued for another 32 years.

After the European disaster, Smith did something brilliant.

He'd stop trying to own everything.

FedEx would be the bridge between markets and not the owner of every truck.

He built partnerships instead of empires, using technology to connect different networks.

The internet boom proved Smith had been right all along.

Every dot-com needed FedEx.

As people began buying more goods online, those purple planes became essential infrastructure.

Revenue exploded from $7.8 billion in 1992 to nearly $30 billion by 2005.

The 2009 recession brought another crisis.

Package volume crashed.

Smith had to cut thousands of jobs, a layoff for only the second time in the company's history.

But while competitors retreated, FedEx invested in technology and efficiency.

They emerged stronger with industry-leading margins.

When COVID hit in 2020, FedEx became humanity's lifeline, delivering vaccines worldwide and medical supplies to overwhelmed hospitals.

Revenue hit $84 billion.

The Marine who'd wanted to do something productive after blowing things up certainly had done so.

Smith stepped down as CEO in March 2022 at age 77, but remained executive chairman, still reading four hours a day and still unable to let go fully.

Under new leadership, FedEx finally merged express and ground operations, something that Smith had resisted for decades.