In this brief interview segment, Speaker A recounts the well‑known story of Colonel Harland Sanders, who faced over a thousand rejections while trying to sell his secret fried‑chicken recipe before a small restaurant finally gave him a chance, launching the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. Mike Michalowicz reacts passionately, calling the rejectors "idiots" and expressing his love for KFC despite acknowledging its health drawbacks. He shares a personal anecdote about traveling to the nearest KFC in Rockaway, highlighting the brand’s pull and the tension between desire and health consciousness.
Next failure, Colonel Harland Sanders of KFC. So Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC, faced over 1,000 rejections while trying to sell his secret fried chicken recipe to restaurants. His persistence paid off when one small restaurant finally gave him a chance, which led to a massive franchise success of Kentucky Fried Chicken. His story exemplifies perseverance in the face of constant failure.
Whoever rejected KFC is an idiot. I know. Who would do that? Who would do that? Who would do that? Is it the best chicken on the planet?
It's so good. It's finger-licking good.
It is finger-licking good. It's funny. I would rather go to KFC for chicken than have my own barbecue. I love it. And I know how bad it is for you and all that stuff. Yeah, I know. We don't do it, but we really love it. And there's not many KFCs around here. I can only think of one in Rockaway. So I'll traverse to another town, fight traffic. It's not like the most well-kept store. Nope. You've been there?
Yep.
And I'll go there because it's KFC. So kudos to the Colonel. I think there's a lesson around this rejection. And yes, there's the stick-to-it-ness, but Also, there's an opportunity for you to test it out. Toilet Paper Entrepreneur followed a similar path. The names that were out there did not want to buy the book. So finally I said, I got to put this out there myself. Trying to partner with other people, they are also afraid of failure, particularly if they're quote unquote successful. So once you figure out your thing that's working for you, you're a publisher and we got books that are selling, to take on a book that's not potentially going to sell is a big risk. It could start bringing you down the wrong path. So I think as an organization becomes more successful, however they define that, they are less likely to take on the risk of potential failure. And so therefore, when you try to partner up like the Colonel did, Colonel Sanders, I'm not surprised that it was a small kitchen that tried him out. The second thing is, once you overcome failure, and this, you know, we're blending failure and rejection. With rejection again. They are 2 separate things. But when you overcome failure, and I suspect leading up to the rejections was he had to figure out that finger-licking good recipe. It probably wasn't like first try. He's like, oh, I got the oregano perfect. He had to figure it out.
