Page 57 - Вишневская Виктория Юрьевна ©

ВИШНЕВСКАЯ ВИКТОРИЯ ЮРЬЕВНА ©

was refused, leaving FedEx more or less dead on the ground when they’d not
be able to fuel their planes the following Monday.
Not to be dissuaded, instead of taking a flight home to Memphis, Smith took
the $5000 and flew to Las Vegas and played Black Jack that weekened with
the remaining company funds. By Monday, to the shock of other higher ups
in the company, FedEx had $32,000 in its bank account, which was just enough
to cover the fuel for their planes and to continue operating a few days
more. When asked what he’d been thinking taking a chance like that with
company funds, he stated: “What difference does it make? Without the funds
for the fuel companies, we couldn’t have flown anyway.”
It turns out, a few days more was all he needed. Shortly thereafter, Smith
successfully managed to raise $11 million to keep the company afloat and, by
1976, Federal Express made its first profit of $3.6 million. Four years after
that, the company’s profits were up to nearly $40 million with gross revenue
near half a billion dollars. Today, FedEx is estimated to be worth in the vicinity
of $25-$35 billion, with Smith himself currently worth around $2 billion.
Bonus Facts:
 On April 7, 1994 a FedEx flight was nearly hijacked by a former
employee, Auburn Calloway, that had been recently fired. Calloway had
planned to crash the plane into FedEx’s headquarters. However, the crew
on board was able to stop Calloway, though, they sustained severe injuries
in the process.
 Surprisingly, to date, FedEx has only lost a handful of planes and only
once has one of their planes crashing resulted in the death of the
pilots. That flight was on March 23, 2009 when one of their flights crashed
while landing in extremely windy conditions with the plane bouncing a
couple times on the runway before the wing clipped the ground with the
result of the plane flipping over and catching on fire, killing the pilots.
 While in college, Frederick Smith was a member of the same fraternity as
George W. Bush and was also a member of the Skull and Bones society.
Bush and he became friends in college, which subsequently lead to Bush
offering him the position of Defense Secretary in his administration, which
Smith ultimately turned down twice, once due to his own health, and the
second time, during Bush’s second administration, due to Smith’s
terminally ill daughter.
 Smith was also good friends with John Kerry. The two shared a love of
flying and would often fly together. One can only imagine the
awkwardness when Smith endorsed Bush over Kerry in the 2004
presidential elections.

vic_the_english_guru
Страница 55