and I was very very very sure that what
we were doing was extremely important we
don’t need a lot of grand standards and
people that want the spotlight on on
them I was willing to take take a chance
because losing wasn’t the worst thing in
the world that could happen nobody can
can do things by themselves at any scale
for the first time in history you were
able to see inventory in motion or at
rest the important thing is to think
beyond your local economy to create
higher margins and increase growth for
your business all of a sudden you turn
the kaleidoscope and there you see
something that nobody saw before find
yourself something you’re good at and do
it to perfection what’s the purple
promise and they’ll say very simply I
think one thing I will make every FedEx
experience outstanding he’s the founder
chairman president and CEO of FedEx in
2014 Fortune magazine ranked him number
26 on the world’s 50 greatest leaders he
has an estimated net worth of three
point six billion dollars he’s Fred
Smith and here’s my take on his top ten
rules for success the reason I never
lost confidence is because I never
believed that the consequences of losing
were were as bad as some other people
might have thought you know oh my
goodness I’ve lost my money or what have
you I mean I just wasn’t motivated along
those lines and I was very very very
sure that what we were doing was
extremely important and was destined to
be successful so that’s the definition I
think of an insane person or a zealous
and most entrepreneurs I think you would
find have that sort of green wire laid
in there just a little bit crosswise and
they they begin to get focused on
something and they they believe in the
idea or themselves far beyond what they
probably should we don’t need a lot of
grand standards
and people that want the spotlight on on
them you know they’re all the way back
to sunsoo you know who made the famous
quote that you know if you’re if you’re
a good leader the ultimate test of that
is that the people will accomplish great
things and they’ll think you had nothing
to do with it
so I think they have to be self effacing
I think they have to have an
understanding of the mission I mean they
have to whether it’s football or the
military or FedEx or what have you they
got to have that DNA they’ve got to
understand those little tiny details and
be able to synthesize them together
particularly if they’re organisations
and that’s a very important thing here’s
an inspiring story from a recent edition
of the New York Times for example it was
about a Michigan company called bandulus
that introduced a new product women’s
sandals with interchangeable decorative
tops and they introduced these products
right after the economic crisis hit in
the fall of 2008 a pretty brave thing is
startup business in that time under any
circumstances when the five employee
company was pounded with manufacturing
and raw material cost increases of up to
30% and remember the price of fuel in
the summer of 2008 went to 147 dollars a
barrel
the owner Thomas St decided that vandals
needed to sell his way out of the
problem and he made another daring move
in the midst of that economic crisis and
as it turns out it was a very smart move
indeed now in the Chinese language
assemble for crisis and the opportunity
or the same and this gave mr. Sethi the
wake-up call he needed he realized that
because vandals sell best in warm months
expanding into overseas markets with
year-round nice weather or with seasons
that ran opposite to those
in the United States would be the way to
dig his business out of a hole after he
did his homework and realize it would
cost much less than he expected he began
selling vandals in 15 countries by 2011
the company’s revenue had increased a
whopping 250 percent and his profits and
tripled I think that’s a great story
about a small business person having the
vision to see how his product can appeal
to global markets and how the technology
and supply chain advancements we have
today make it easier and more
cost-effective to branch into those
markets in retrospect it was ridiculous
to try to put this system together was
which required so much upfront money and
required changing a lot of government
regulations but I didn’t know that at
the time and I think probably my
experience in the service where the the
currency of exchange in FedEx was just
money you know what in people’s arms and
legs or lives and so my perspective on
it were was perhaps a bit more I don’t
know how you’d say it I was willing to
take take a chance because losing wasn’t
the worst thing in the world that could
happen see I had seen that very clearly
nobody can can do things by themselves
at any scale and if you read about
Marshall Marshall was extraordinarily
able to deal with difficult
personalities and to synthesize them
into into a team Admiral King who was
the Chief of Naval Operations at the
time was a very prickly fellow he had a
very tough tough personality and he was
found to be intractable on many many
things but Marshall could deal with him
and he did it he did it in many
different ways many times being self
effacing by walking over to King’s
office and so forth now he ended up
being in charge of the whole the whole
shooting match and Roosevelt’s architect
of the war but in the early stages he
had to build that team synthesis to get
things done and he was a master at it we
got we handle million millions and
millions of pieces every day and one of
the things we did years ago which was
very important is we figured out our
customers wanted the information about
where every one of them was every day
which was impossible at the time but we
had a internal entrepreneur that figured
out how to do it he revolutionized all
kinds of things is a great story I think
it’s in the National Academy of Sciences
about how the FedEx people did it and
and and the reason it was so important
for the first time in history you were
able to see inventory in motion or at
rest
not warehouse doesn’t add any value it’s
just a place to put something so you
know you got it
well once we invented the tracking of
things in motion you could keep track of
inventory whether it was moving in a 500
mile an hour or 5:15 triple7 or in a 50
mile an hour FedEx over-the-road truck
and it allowed people to have fantastic
productivity it’s what allowed along
with government deregulation of
transportation things like Walmart and
which is really a logistic system not
just a retailer for the help of the
internet and global logistics like we
provide more small businesses have
become part of the global supply chain
than in any other time in history 52
percent of all small businesses are
home-based and I think it’s fair to say
that people are selling goods to the
national international markets that they
could have only sold locally 20 years
ago in many many cases now whether
you’re expanding nationally or
internationally the important thing is
to think be
on your local economy to create higher
margins and increase growth for your
business I think some people just see
things that that that others don’t
there was a great professor at your alma
mater I hate to say it
Roosevelt moth Moss Kanter and professor
can are used to describe it as
kaleidoscope thinking that you you look
at something and it’s a pattern and then
you turn the kaleidoscope and it’s
another pattern and it’s meaningless and
all of a sudden you turn the
kaleidoscope and there you see something
that nobody saw before
I mean clearly lots of people fit into
that category I mean these Steve Jobs
you see it you know with the products
that he’s come out with and Bill Gates
and so forth I I just think that general
Marshall in his field was able to to
synthesize all of those things that he
learned in France and the experiences
that he had in the Army to to understand
the great crisis that was ahead and to
prepare for it uniquely and for those
who don’t you don’t know it he ran the
army school at Fort Benning and I think
at 11 or two and and he compiled a list
of officers that he felt in time of
emergency would be the ones that he
should promote if he were put in that
position and he was put in that position
and he did promote them with fantastic
success over the heads of many many
other officers who were seniors to the
to the ones that had impressed him so he
was able to see that well however it
came about
I’ve thought many times about the advice
I might give a graduating class and I
can find no better quote than one that
was given some two hundred years ago by
a Polish general Thaddeus Coast Cuzco
who had come to the United States to
help Washington along with Lafayette
when our independence
he was an engineer fortified West Point
and was a major contributor to the
success of American arms he said shortly
after the war to a group of students
such as yourself said yourself to work
with reflection and intelligence either
at your prescribed duty carried out in
the most scrupulous manner or perfect
yourself in some science in which you
should have true mastery perhaps in a
shortened version General Colin Powell
summed it up find yourself something
you’re good at and do it to perfection
something you enjoy and if you do that I
can promise you as I have over the past
thirty some-odd years you won’t feel
that you’ve gone to work a day in your
life
FedEx over its entire existence David
has gotten better and better and better
at what we do and we’ve been able to do
that for three reasons one the use of
technology because just imagine if we
were handling all those millions of
people today and we things today we
couldn’t keep track of I mean things
would be going to Mars for goodness sake
secondly we have availed ourselves of
the most advanced scientific quality
management systems pioneered by Japanese
industry and led by professor Deming and
professor Jaron 25 30 years ago and
third we have a culture which is
represented by a very simple phrase I
will it’s we call it our purple promise
our purple is the common color for all
of the FedEx branding we’re a little
like coke you know Reds coke classic and
Silver’s diet coke and gold as I don’t
know what it is but it doesn’t have much
in it yes I drink it but but so purple
and orange is our original express
company purple and Platinum’s corporate
purpley green is our ground parcel
company purple and blue fedex office and
purple and crimson is FedEx Freight so
we have a very simple phrase that every
member of the FedEx team knows and I
hope if you walk up somebody
asking what’s the purple promise and
they’ll say very simply I think one
thing I will make every FedEx experience
outstanding so you don’t need eighteen
manuals and one thing or another you
give them the best technology and try to
support them and the best management
tools and and our our team will deliver
so we’ve gotten better and better every
year so we don’t lose many of anyone’s
packages most including mine thank you
so much for watching I made this video
because gyro head asked me to so there’s
a famous entrepreneur that you want me
to profile next leave it in the comments
below and I’ll see what I can do I’d
also love to know what your Fred Smith
top-10 rules had the deepest impact on
you leave it in the comments and I will
join the discussion thank you so much
for watching and continue to believe and
I’ll see you soon
we were doing was extremely important we
don’t need a lot of grand standards and
people that want the spotlight on on
them I was willing to take take a chance
because losing wasn’t the worst thing in
the world that could happen nobody can
can do things by themselves at any scale
for the first time in history you were
able to see inventory in motion or at
rest the important thing is to think
beyond your local economy to create
higher margins and increase growth for
your business all of a sudden you turn
the kaleidoscope and there you see
something that nobody saw before find
yourself something you’re good at and do
it to perfection what’s the purple
promise and they’ll say very simply I
think one thing I will make every FedEx
experience outstanding he’s the founder
chairman president and CEO of FedEx in
2014 Fortune magazine ranked him number
26 on the world’s 50 greatest leaders he
has an estimated net worth of three
point six billion dollars he’s Fred
Smith and here’s my take on his top ten
rules for success the reason I never
lost confidence is because I never
believed that the consequences of losing
were were as bad as some other people
might have thought you know oh my
goodness I’ve lost my money or what have
you I mean I just wasn’t motivated along
those lines and I was very very very
sure that what we were doing was
extremely important and was destined to
be successful so that’s the definition I
think of an insane person or a zealous
and most entrepreneurs I think you would
find have that sort of green wire laid
in there just a little bit crosswise and
they they begin to get focused on
something and they they believe in the
idea or themselves far beyond what they
probably should we don’t need a lot of
grand standards
and people that want the spotlight on on
them you know they’re all the way back
to sunsoo you know who made the famous
quote that you know if you’re if you’re
a good leader the ultimate test of that
is that the people will accomplish great
things and they’ll think you had nothing
to do with it
so I think they have to be self effacing
I think they have to have an
understanding of the mission I mean they
have to whether it’s football or the
military or FedEx or what have you they
got to have that DNA they’ve got to
understand those little tiny details and
be able to synthesize them together
particularly if they’re organisations
and that’s a very important thing here’s
an inspiring story from a recent edition
of the New York Times for example it was
about a Michigan company called bandulus
that introduced a new product women’s
sandals with interchangeable decorative
tops and they introduced these products
right after the economic crisis hit in
the fall of 2008 a pretty brave thing is
startup business in that time under any
circumstances when the five employee
company was pounded with manufacturing
and raw material cost increases of up to
30% and remember the price of fuel in
the summer of 2008 went to 147 dollars a
barrel
the owner Thomas St decided that vandals
needed to sell his way out of the
problem and he made another daring move
in the midst of that economic crisis and
as it turns out it was a very smart move
indeed now in the Chinese language
assemble for crisis and the opportunity
or the same and this gave mr. Sethi the
wake-up call he needed he realized that
because vandals sell best in warm months
expanding into overseas markets with
year-round nice weather or with seasons
that ran opposite to those
in the United States would be the way to
dig his business out of a hole after he
did his homework and realize it would
cost much less than he expected he began
selling vandals in 15 countries by 2011
the company’s revenue had increased a
whopping 250 percent and his profits and
tripled I think that’s a great story
about a small business person having the
vision to see how his product can appeal
to global markets and how the technology
and supply chain advancements we have
today make it easier and more
cost-effective to branch into those
markets in retrospect it was ridiculous
to try to put this system together was
which required so much upfront money and
required changing a lot of government
regulations but I didn’t know that at
the time and I think probably my
experience in the service where the the
currency of exchange in FedEx was just
money you know what in people’s arms and
legs or lives and so my perspective on
it were was perhaps a bit more I don’t
know how you’d say it I was willing to
take take a chance because losing wasn’t
the worst thing in the world that could
happen see I had seen that very clearly
nobody can can do things by themselves
at any scale and if you read about
Marshall Marshall was extraordinarily
able to deal with difficult
personalities and to synthesize them
into into a team Admiral King who was
the Chief of Naval Operations at the
time was a very prickly fellow he had a
very tough tough personality and he was
found to be intractable on many many
things but Marshall could deal with him
and he did it he did it in many
different ways many times being self
effacing by walking over to King’s
office and so forth now he ended up
being in charge of the whole the whole
shooting match and Roosevelt’s architect
of the war but in the early stages he
had to build that team synthesis to get
things done and he was a master at it we
got we handle million millions and
millions of pieces every day and one of
the things we did years ago which was
very important is we figured out our
customers wanted the information about
where every one of them was every day
which was impossible at the time but we
had a internal entrepreneur that figured
out how to do it he revolutionized all
kinds of things is a great story I think
it’s in the National Academy of Sciences
about how the FedEx people did it and
and and the reason it was so important
for the first time in history you were
able to see inventory in motion or at
rest
not warehouse doesn’t add any value it’s
just a place to put something so you
know you got it
well once we invented the tracking of
things in motion you could keep track of
inventory whether it was moving in a 500
mile an hour or 5:15 triple7 or in a 50
mile an hour FedEx over-the-road truck
and it allowed people to have fantastic
productivity it’s what allowed along
with government deregulation of
transportation things like Walmart and
which is really a logistic system not
just a retailer for the help of the
internet and global logistics like we
provide more small businesses have
become part of the global supply chain
than in any other time in history 52
percent of all small businesses are
home-based and I think it’s fair to say
that people are selling goods to the
national international markets that they
could have only sold locally 20 years
ago in many many cases now whether
you’re expanding nationally or
internationally the important thing is
to think be
on your local economy to create higher
margins and increase growth for your
business I think some people just see
things that that that others don’t
there was a great professor at your alma
mater I hate to say it
Roosevelt moth Moss Kanter and professor
can are used to describe it as
kaleidoscope thinking that you you look
at something and it’s a pattern and then
you turn the kaleidoscope and it’s
another pattern and it’s meaningless and
all of a sudden you turn the
kaleidoscope and there you see something
that nobody saw before
I mean clearly lots of people fit into
that category I mean these Steve Jobs
you see it you know with the products
that he’s come out with and Bill Gates
and so forth I I just think that general
Marshall in his field was able to to
synthesize all of those things that he
learned in France and the experiences
that he had in the Army to to understand
the great crisis that was ahead and to
prepare for it uniquely and for those
who don’t you don’t know it he ran the
army school at Fort Benning and I think
at 11 or two and and he compiled a list
of officers that he felt in time of
emergency would be the ones that he
should promote if he were put in that
position and he was put in that position
and he did promote them with fantastic
success over the heads of many many
other officers who were seniors to the
to the ones that had impressed him so he
was able to see that well however it
came about
I’ve thought many times about the advice
I might give a graduating class and I
can find no better quote than one that
was given some two hundred years ago by
a Polish general Thaddeus Coast Cuzco
who had come to the United States to
help Washington along with Lafayette
when our independence
he was an engineer fortified West Point
and was a major contributor to the
success of American arms he said shortly
after the war to a group of students
such as yourself said yourself to work
with reflection and intelligence either
at your prescribed duty carried out in
the most scrupulous manner or perfect
yourself in some science in which you
should have true mastery perhaps in a
shortened version General Colin Powell
summed it up find yourself something
you’re good at and do it to perfection
something you enjoy and if you do that I
can promise you as I have over the past
thirty some-odd years you won’t feel
that you’ve gone to work a day in your
life
FedEx over its entire existence David
has gotten better and better and better
at what we do and we’ve been able to do
that for three reasons one the use of
technology because just imagine if we
were handling all those millions of
people today and we things today we
couldn’t keep track of I mean things
would be going to Mars for goodness sake
secondly we have availed ourselves of
the most advanced scientific quality
management systems pioneered by Japanese
industry and led by professor Deming and
professor Jaron 25 30 years ago and
third we have a culture which is
represented by a very simple phrase I
will it’s we call it our purple promise
our purple is the common color for all
of the FedEx branding we’re a little
like coke you know Reds coke classic and
Silver’s diet coke and gold as I don’t
know what it is but it doesn’t have much
in it yes I drink it but but so purple
and orange is our original express
company purple and Platinum’s corporate
purpley green is our ground parcel
company purple and blue fedex office and
purple and crimson is FedEx Freight so
we have a very simple phrase that every
member of the FedEx team knows and I
hope if you walk up somebody
asking what’s the purple promise and
they’ll say very simply I think one
thing I will make every FedEx experience
outstanding so you don’t need eighteen
manuals and one thing or another you
give them the best technology and try to
support them and the best management
tools and and our our team will deliver
so we’ve gotten better and better every
year so we don’t lose many of anyone’s
packages most including mine thank you
so much for watching I made this video
because gyro head asked me to so there’s
a famous entrepreneur that you want me
to profile next leave it in the comments
below and I’ll see what I can do I’d
also love to know what your Fred Smith
top-10 rules had the deepest impact on
you leave it in the comments and I will
join the discussion thank you so much
for watching and continue to believe and
I’ll see you soon
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