ROOT: Colonel Sanders is my hero

May 20, 2008 04:43 pm

— You are probably familiar with my bout with aging. Of course it is a bout I am losing but things have a way of changing your focus over time. I am starting to realize that you get depressed about getting older when you sit around and think about the fact that you are getting older.
When it comes to your life you can do one of two things. You can either do what you have to do and then lament the fact that time passes us all by way too fast or you can do what you want to do while you are doing what you have to do and then not have any time to think about time passing by so fast. Got that? Basically what I am saying is that aging is a process that is feared by people that do nothing to make sure that they are making the most of the time they are given. A great example of someone who never stopped living even late into his life is my new hero, Colonel Sanders.
Colonel Sanders was born in 1890. The first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise was sold by the Colonel himself in 1955. Do the math. That’s right, the Colonel was 65 years old when he started KFC. He used his first social security check as the money needed to hit the road and sell his first KFC franchise. He sold KFC for millions in 1964 and continued on as its spokesman for the rest of his life. He didn’t start cooking fried chicken until he was 40. Up until he was 40 he was doing the things he had to do to survive. He became a fierce entrepreneur and looked over KFC like a strict father for almost 25 years. The Colonel was known to drop in unannounced to a KFC franchise and look the operation over. If he didn’t approve of the way things were run he personally would shut the restaurant down on the spot. No lie. The man was intense.
Recently some of the things I have been planning and dreaming about for quite a few years have started to show some results. I don’t know if anything I am up to will ever get me to where I really want to be but I have learned something very valuable these last few weeks and it is a lesson that the Colonel tried to teach us all. If you stop to think about what you are not doing and lamenting the time that has passed you by rather than getting down to doing the things you want to do then life does indeed seem to pass you by. However, if you just get down to living every day driven by the things that you want and the vision of your life that you have in your head then years no longer matter. What matters is what you do with those years.
I know it seems like such an obvious thing but until you actually get to the point where you are fearing a life lived without accomplishment then you have no appreciation for the ability to bypass time. Time is used to keep track of milestones and mortgage payments. If you stare at the calendar waiting for your next payday then you suddenly find yourself thoroughly depressed. I’ve been there. But if you set out to do the things you want then the calendar only becomes a way of keeping appointments and not a way of watching the years fly by.
Take a cue from the Colonel like I have. If you feel like something is missing in your life then go and find out what it is. It doesn’t matter if you are 20 years old or 70 years old. A life lived is a beautiful thing and a life wasted is the world’s biggest tragedy. Some of the people involved in my projects have told me that they haven’t felt this alive and active in years and some of these people are much older than I am. I am not saying I am the answer to everyone’s life dilemma, all I am saying is that everyone that looks for that thing that drives them will find it whether it be something created by their own hand or not.
In 1975 Colonel Sanders was sued because he said that the company he had sold KFC too had turned the KFC gravy into sludge. The man was 85 years old and still picking fights with major corporations over what he truly believed in. He never retired from his job as KFC spokesman and was buried in his famous Kentucky Colonel’s outfit. The man was dead and he was still working at his dream. What’s your excuse?
George N. Root III is a Lockport resident. His column runs every Wednesday. Send comments to georgeroot@verizon.net.

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