Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Frederick W. Smith (American Entrepreneur)

Frederick W. Smith (b.1944,) in full Frederick Wallace Smith, byname Fred Smith, is an American entrepreneur and business executive. He founded Federal Express (later called FedEx) in 1971 and, as CEO until 2022, transformed it into one of the largest express-delivery companies in the world.

Born in Marks, Mississippi, smith wrote a paper about overnight delivery services for an economics class at Yale University. After graduating, he served two tours with the U.S. Marines during the Vietnam War and was discharged as a captain in 1970 with two Purple Hearts.

Smith founded Federal Express in 1971 as a Memphis, Tennessee-based express-delivery service with integrated airplanes and trucks. It became operational two years later, with night flights to 25 U.S. cities. Federal Express initially struggled, losing $30 million in its first 26 months, but recorded a profit in 1976. Smith took Federal Express public two years later. Federal Express launched intercontinental services in 1984 and, by 2005, operating in some 220 countries.

Biographies include Vance Trimble’s Overnight Success: Federal Express & Frederick Smith: It’s Renegade Creator (1993) and Roger Frock’s Changing How the World Does Business: FedEx’s Incredible Journey to Success—The Inside (2006.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Frederick W. Smith

Fear of failure must never be a reason not to try something.
Frederick W. Smith
Topics: Fear, Failure

If you keep working at it, in the last analysis, you win. They’ve got to kill us a hundred times. All we have to do is kill them once.
Frederick W. Smith
Topics: Perseverance, Persistence

Wondering Whom to Read Next?

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *