Fred Smith
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Warren Buffett says it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.
And Fred learned it the hard way.
The company recovered financially, but it lost something irreplaceable in its soul.
Number nine, outcome over ego.
FedEx lost $629 million trying to crack Europe.
Fred assumed Europeans would want overnight delivery like Americans, but they didn't.
Their countries were small.
Trucks worked fine.
Smith could have thrown more money at it to save face.
Instead, he retreated, sold operations, and laid off 6,000 people and took the laws.
Sometimes the smartest strategy is walking away, he'd learned from military history.
Most leaders double down on proving themselves right.
The best never stop focusing on the outcome.
And finally, balance don't break.
A childhood disease that should have crippled him, a car accident that killed his friend, two tours in Vietnam, the Vegas gamble, the coup attempt,
The European disaster, each crisis, taught Fred the same lesson, adapt or die.
He didn't just survive.
He built an $88 billion empire that moves over 17 million packages a day.
Most people are destroyed by their worst moments.
The exceptional are forged by them.