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Leadership
Fred Smith was just 27 when he founded FedEx. Thirty-five years later, he's still at the helm. He attributes the success of the company to leadership, pure and simple -- something he picked up from his years in the military, and from his family.Smith's grandfather had captained a Mississippi River steamboat; his father built the Greyhound Bus Line in the South, expanding his fortune along with the routes. Smith says he was just four when his father died, "so he probably served as a near mythical role model for me."
Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, Smith says, "I didn't know I wanted to go into business, but I knew I wanted a leadership position. That appealed to me."
His passion was flying. At 15, he was operating a crop-duster over the flat fields of the Mississippi Delta. As a student at Yale University, he helped resurrect the Yale flying club; its alumni had populated naval aviation history, including the famous "millionaires' unit" in World War I. Smith took care of the club's business end and ran a small air-charter operation in New Haven.
With little time to study, his scholastic performance suffered, but Smith never stopped looking for the "big idea."
He thought he had found it when he wrote a term paper for an economics class. He outlined an idea for a transportation company that would guarantee overnight delivery of small, time-sensitive goods -- replacement parts and medical supplies -- to major U.S. cities. The professor was not impressed.
Smith was certain he was onto something, but it would be a while before he could turn his idea into reality. He graduated from Yale in 1966 just as America's involvement in the Vietnam War was escalating. Since he had attended officers' training classes, he joined the Marines.
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