Fred Smith: The Story of FedEx [Outliers]

The Knowledge Project

Shane Parrish

Business, Society & Culture, Technology, Education, Self-improvement, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.7 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fred Smith founded FedEx on an idea everyone told him would fail and built it into an $88 billion empire that changed how the world moves. In this episode, we dive into how he built FedEx and the lessons he learned along the way. This story proves that impossible is just another word for opportunity. ----- Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (03:36) Part 1: The Boy Who Wouldn't Stay Down (15:52) Part 2: The Impossible Company (29:36) Part 3: The Empire Builder (38:12) Epilogue: From Crisis to Legacy (1993–2025) (40:55) Important Things That Didn’t Make It Into the Episode (43:55) Lessons from Fred Smith ----- Upgrade: Get a hand edited transcripts and ad free experiences along with my thoughts and reflections at the end of every conversation. Learn more @ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/membership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------ Newsletter: The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------ Follow Shane Parrish X ⁠⁠⁠⁠@ShaneAParrish⁠⁠⁠⁠ Insta @farnamstreet LinkedIn Shane Parrish ------ This episode is for informational purposes only. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's July, 1974. Fred Smith is sitting at a blackjack table in Las Vegas at 3 a.m.
0:07.3	He's playing with the last $5,000 his company has left, literally the entire bank account of FedEx.
0:14.6	Back in Memphis, 14 jets sit on the tarmac. They need $24,000 worth of fuel by Monday morning or Federal Express dies.
0:23.9	Smith's already been turned down by every investor. He's personally guaranteed millions in loans.
0:29.3	His house, his inheritance, everything he owns is on the line. General Dynamics and early investor
0:35.3	in FedEx just told him no for the third time.
0:38.5	Sorry, Fred. We can't invest anymore in FedEx.
0:41.5	The company is burning a million dollars a month with no plan to profitability.
0:46.3	Most founders would have given up.
0:48.6	But Fred Smith isn't most founders.
0:50.8	He went to Vegas instead.
0:52.5	By sunrise, he's turned that $5,000 into $27,000, just enough to
0:59.0	fuel the planes for two more weeks. That bought him the time to raise $11 million and save the
1:05.1	company. Five decades later, that desperate gamble has become an $88 billion empire that
1:10.7	moved 17 million packages a day.
1:13.6	But here's what matters.
1:15.2	Fred Smith didn't build FedEx because he got lucky at Blackjack.
1:19.2	He built it because when everyone else said overnight delivery was impossible,
1:23.3	he saw that impossible was just another word for opportunity.
1:30.0	Welcome to the Knowledge Project.
1:31.7	I'm your host, Shane Parrish.
1:33.7	In a world where knowledge is power,
	...

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