Wilson Harrell – “Entrepreneurs are born, not made, but thirst for freedom is the spark that ignites.”
Born in Georgia, 1919, Wilson Harrell, world renowned entrepreneur and marketing guru was a man of strong conviction. In his great business journey, he lived a glamorous life all through. Not all know that Wilson was a fighter pilot in World War II and received purple heart, air medal with four oak leaves and also the President Citation.
It all began with Wilson Harrell & Company started by Wilson himself after the war. The company distributed Kraft products to huge military market and in a short amount of time the company sales reached $200 million. But Wilson had other ideas, he sold the distribution company, then he bought Formula 409, a household cleaning product company for $30,000 and turned it around. He later sold the company for $7 million and bought 60 food and brokerage companies whose total sale exceeded $500 million.
All in all, Wilson started over 100 companies and turned around many of them. He was voted America’s number one columnist for the year 1995 and 1996 by the American society of Business for his monthly contribution to the Success Magazine. Wilson was also the past publisher of INC. magazine. Along with being the founder and chairman of Council of Growing Companies, a nationwide organization, Wilson was also the leader and voice of entrepreneur’s movement in America. His book “For Entrepreneurs Only” was a bestseller and still one of the most admired in this genre.
In his book, he discussed the hunters and farmers of cave man age. He reasoned from science and a variety of studies that genes are passed down and often entrepreneurs are the children of entrepreneurs. At some point thousands of years ago, entrepreneurs were the hunters of our world while the farmers tend to be the employees.
He enjoyed great success in life and died in 1997 at the age of 78 from lung cancer.
“If you want to be an entrepreneur, be sure that your aim is to be free to do something well. To leave a footprint in the sands of time. And be sure you give your employees the freedom to make contributions, to earn rewards – and even make mistakes.”
– Source – “For Entrepreneurs Only” from Wilson Harrell.
Source by Glenn Maynard