How Fedex turned CEO turned company around after a gambling session

[everythingforsale]

Gambling ain't always the bad thing fellas:

http://www.businessinsider.com/fedex-saved-from-bankruptcy-with-blackjack-winnings-2014-7


FedEx, the world's first overnight delivery company, delivers more than 1.2 billion packages every year in over 220 countries. Yet, in its early days, founder Frederick Smith was so desperate, he had to rely on gambling in Vegas to fund his company.


When FedEx's funds dwindled to just $5,000, Smith realized he didn't have enough to fuel the planes. The company had already gone to many extremes, from pilots using their personal credit cards to fuel planes to uncashed paychecks.

So what's a desperate founder to do? Smith impulsively flew to Las Vegas and played blackjack with the last of the company money.

Amazingly, when he came back the next week, he had turned the remaining $5,000 into $27,000 — just enough for the company to stay in operation for another week.

[erpbridge]

Haha, was just reading this on the reddit front page a couple hours ago. It is amazing how he came back to win that much money. But it isn't a lesson that you should gamble in such situations. He had a lot of money to start with, and would probably would have lost it all if he had continued.

Gambling is not a way out of such situations.

[poplolnman]

Haha, was just reading this on the reddit front page a couple hours ago. It is amazing how he came back to win that much money. But it isn't a lesson that you should gamble in such situations. He had a lot of money to start with, and would probably would have lost it all if he had continued.

Gambling is not a way out of such situations.

it's an old story but some people might don't know yet about this weird and amazing story . it's indeed shouldn't be a motivation for anyone to gamble full of spirit because of this story. gambling are just gambling , where people actually stake money for entertainment reason or maybe for the sake of the greed to make money easily. gambling are not that good to help someone , a lot of case have contradictory story.

[LuanX3]

Haha, was just reading this on the reddit front page a couple hours ago. It is amazing how he came back to win that much money. But it isn't a lesson that you should gamble in such situations. He had a lot of money to start with, and would probably would have lost it all if he had continued.

Gambling is not a way out of such situations.

it's an old story but some people might don't know yet about this weird and amazing story . it's indeed shouldn't be a motivation for anyone to gamble full of spirit because of this story. gambling are just gambling , where people actually stake money for entertainment reason or maybe for the sake of the greed to make money easily. gambling are not that good to help someone , a lot of case have contradictory story.

I agree, there is really something wrong with a person that gambles away his last remaining money expecting it to double up in casinos. He was lucky he didn't lost everything in the casinos, our luck is not all the same. The guy could have lost money he can't afford to lose and then we would have never seen fedex like it is today.

[poplolnman]

Haha, was just reading this on the reddit front page a couple hours ago. It is amazing how he came back to win that much money. But it isn't a lesson that you should gamble in such situations. He had a lot of money to start with, and would probably would have lost it all if he had continued.

Gambling is not a way out of such situations.

it's an old story but some people might don't know yet about this weird and amazing story . it's indeed shouldn't be a motivation for anyone to gamble full of spirit because of this story. gambling are just gambling , where people actually stake money for entertainment reason or maybe for the sake of the greed to make money easily. gambling are not that good to help someone , a lot of case have contradictory story.

I agree, there is really something wrong with a person that gambles away his last remaining money expecting it to double up in casinos. He was lucky he didn't lost everything in the casinos, our luck is not all the same. The guy could have lost money he can't afford to lose and then we would have never seen fedex like it is today.

yeah luck wouldn't always come to you when you need it , even most of the times you got unlucky and suffering a heavy lost then stressed. to go allin to decide your future in gambling aren't a good role model , you guys prefer to keep gamble on the limit lines. gamble something that you can afford to lose , not to go mad / crazy like that, i have a lot of regret doing something like that.

[mindrust]

So what's the deal? We should play blackjack or what? People act crazy when they left without a choice that was the situation with FEDEX's CEO. It could have ended up badly but he was lucky. He was lucky becaue his opponents were bad   I admit blackjack is not purely luck dependent but you won't have dumb opponents everytime you play so it is still about luck.

[HongKong]

That's pretty good although that shows how unprepared plus unorganized the CEO of FedEx was when he began the company. I hope that the CEO isn't playing around with people's money and gambling it like he was doing back then because the company could go bankrupt overnight. Mostly everyone thinks that they’re a gambler until they lose a few times in a row then decides on quitting.
With all the money that the CEO has he should be chilling inside a beach house instead of gambling for crumbs.

[karmakeddon]

Well the CEO probably still gambles. In his own private jet with a few friends. And their wagers are probably "Hmmm..Id like to bet my island in Caracas."

[szpalata]

I've always said gambling isn't a bad thing but the players are bad and greedy people. It's turned Fedex into what we've been enjoying today.  Wow what a story!

[noodle_dam]

That is a crazy story. So that happened just recently or along time ago? Because as far as I know they are still successful company here and the one if not only courier in my local area to ship our parcels and packages out.
Sorry i didn't click on the link to the article but it looks like it was from 2014. Which was along time ago being 3 years or longer from today's date.

[bhadz]

If I were on Smith's situation with a lot of employees and machineries on my hand and I'm the one to decide what to do. Since there's no way for him to borrow and get some loans since his company is already in debt. I would rather sell some stocks of the company but that is amazingly unbelievable, he surely is a lucky guy.

[freedomgo]

Very inspiring story but I would not follow his path, I know he was just lucky that time and the amount he won is not really a big increase from his total bankroll. Many have tried but few had succeed, that is the reality and this guy is really destine to be rich because he did not quit making effort to make his company alive again.

[erpbridge]

That is a crazy story. So that happened just recently or along time ago? Because as far as I know they are still successful company here and the one if not only courier in my local area to ship our parcels and packages out.
Sorry i didn't click on the link to the article but it looks like it was from 2014. Which was along time ago being 3 years or longer from today's date.

It happened a Long time ago, I am sure many many years before 2014. Fedex has been a big company since the last 10 years. I think, it was after sites like Amazon and everything started getting famous, that they started getting much more business than normal and were able to get revived.

[TravelMug]

Cool story and thanks for the share. Smith probably think that he will go all or nothing. And the gamble paid off. They say that you have to be a risk taker to succeed and this is one example. Although I believe after his winnings, he focus more on the company to succeed rather than in gambling. Yeah, he was probably destined to be rich as what others have said, but this gambling story of his proved that gambling is not but at all.

[btc_angela]

Very inspiring story indeed. He's glad he won, otherwise we won't see FedEx today. With his winning he was able to build FedEx as what it is today. And just like any gamblers, he found gambling as his only solution to his problem and it paid off. Lucky for him, but for others its not.

[Wendigo]

Gambling works in mysterious ways sometimes. It can literally save or ruin your life easily if you overdo it. It's not always a happy ending though, and contrary to popular belief putting everything you own on red or black playing roulette as shown in movies does not automatically make you a winner because luck is completely random and doesn't depend on particular events  

Stay safe and bet responsibly!

[xuan87]

This is a very interesting story, not many people can be succeed from gambling, but in the other hand it is a very risky thing and I won't suggest anyone to try this thing, usually this kind of thing can make you fall deeper and the chance of this thing to happened is very slim , but i am glad this time the gambling succeed so we can enjoy the Fedex services

[piloder]

This story can't be repeated and i think he was lucky at that time to win that much. Also he have stopped gambling after winning few, if he had continued playing with greed to win more he could have lost all his initial bankroll of $5000. 

[bajing]

Gambling ain't always the bad thing fellas:

http://www.businessinsider.com/fedex-saved-from-bankruptcy-with-blackjack-winnings-2014-7


FedEx, the world's first overnight delivery company, delivers more than 1.2 billion packages every year in over 220 countries. Yet, in its early days, founder Frederick Smith was so desperate, he had to rely on gambling in Vegas to fund his company.


When FedEx's funds dwindled to just $5,000, Smith realized he didn't have enough to fuel the planes. The company had already gone to many extremes, from pilots using their personal credit cards to fuel planes to uncashed paychecks.

So what's a desperate founder to do? Smith impulsively flew to Las Vegas and played blackjack with the last of the company money.

Amazingly, when he came back the next week, he had turned the remaining $5,000 into $27,000 — just enough for the company to stay in operation for another week.

He not do something wrong, i mean he only use $5000 and his target are reasonable 500-600% profit of the capital, yeah he so lucky can win on depressed mostly we can concentration for gambling if we are stress.

[emberbekas]

Gambling ain't always the bad thing fellas:

http://www.businessinsider.com/fedex-saved-from-bankruptcy-with-blackjack-winnings-2014-7


FedEx, the world's first overnight delivery company, delivers more than 1.2 billion packages every year in over 220 countries. Yet, in its early days, founder Frederick Smith was so desperate, he had to rely on gambling in Vegas to fund his company.


When FedEx's funds dwindled to just $5,000, Smith realized he didn't have enough to fuel the planes. The company had already gone to many extremes, from pilots using their personal credit cards to fuel planes to uncashed paychecks.

So what's a desperate founder to do? Smith impulsively flew to Las Vegas and played blackjack with the last of the company money.

Amazingly, when he came back the next week, he had turned the remaining $5,000 into $27,000 — just enough for the company to stay in operation for another week.

This is insane. He could get another problem if he lost his money at gambling but fortunately he was lucky! Gambling can be used as the last weapon when we have no other option to do. The good thing is he stopped after turned that $5,000 into $27,000. This is the good lesson from this story.