On: Frederick W. Smith: No Overnight Success

[kevinconroy]

Headline is misleading. Only reference related to this in the article is:

   By 1973, Smith was so desperate for cash that he flew
   to Las Vegas to play the blackjack tables. He wired 
   the $27,000 he won back to FedEx.

Where did you find it was the "last $5000"?

[graycat → kevinconroy]

Guys, Fred Smith didn't go to Vegas to try winning the $27,000 gambling. Instead he went to Vegas hoping to see Howard Hughes and get an investment in FedEx (then Federal Express), and he won the $27,000 while waiting to see Hughes. Hughes didn't invest, but General Dynamics did, as I recall, $5 million. Check the story with Fred, Roger Frock, Art Bass, Charlie Brandon, Norm Waite, Leon Tyree, Mike Basch, and others.

[niggler → kevinconroy]

Page 134 of "Changing How the World Does Business" (search on google books):

"by mid-July our funds were so meager that on Friday we were down to about $5,000 in the checking account, while we needed $24,000 for the jet fuel payment."

...

"you mean you took our last $5,000 -- how could you do that?"

Original headline was factually correct (even though, as you correctly point out, the $5,000 part wasn't mentioned in the article)

IMGUR screenshot: http://imgur.com/itzcF3Z

[randall → kevinconroy]

I can't back it up with another source, but I have heard this / read this assertion somewhere. It's at least founder-culture folklore. Trying to remember which book I read it in... will edit if I can find / remember.

Here's a reference to another reference: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/15/fred-smith-blackjac...

[saintx → kevinconroy]

Yeah, this is unworthy of HN.