Fred Smith

If he'd had immediate care, he might have made it.

Mike died at the scene.

Fred survived and was treated for a concussion.

His mother later recalled, it made an old man out of him overnight.

A close friend who visited Fred in the hospital would later say, I still think that experience had a great influence on Fred and his life in terms of what he did.

I think he felt very badly and I think he pushed himself to the limit in everything he did.

He probably would say no, that didn't have anything to do with it, but I always thought it might have.

The accident fundamentally changed Fred's relationship with risk and failure.

When you've survived something like that, when you've watched a friend die, business setbacks don't scare you in the same way.

This would influence every major decision he made afterward, from volunteering for Vietnam to betting everything on FedEx.

Fred could have easily avoided Vietnam.

His childhood disability qualified him for medical deferment.

Instead, at 23, he volunteered for the Marines and chose active combat duty.

Some fellow Marines thought he had a death wish after losing his friend in that car accident.

And whether that was true or not, he was a remarkably good soldier.

A second lieutenant, he led a 94-man mortar platoon on search and destroy missions.

The close calls came regularly.

Once a bullet severed his helmet's chinstrap without giving him a scratch.

On another patrol, the men immediately in front, beside, and behind him were all killed.

He was the only one left standing.