An Army of Normal Folks - 3 Things I Learned From FedEx's Founder

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

For Shop Talk, Coach Bill reflects on the extraordinary life of Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx who recently passed away. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an Army of Normal folks. Welcome to Shop Talk number 60. Welcome into the shop, Alex. At age 60 are we eligible for AARP? Is it 60? They might have lowered it to 55 now these days. I don't know. Anyway, I'm just filling space.

Keep going. 60, but I'm trying to think of a 60 that matters I can't think of a 60 that matters. I'm sure you'll Google something while I'm talking How you doing you just got back from Florida or somewhere right? Yeah kind of half vacation half of the kids my parents Love there, so yeah, and I'm making it out too fancy and then we went up to New York with saw your brother with your two Oldest yeah, that was great fancy. And then we went up to New York with saw your brother with your two oldest. Yeah. That was great. Actually this is kind of cool. My weird reflections from the trip. So we biked around Central Park. Did you like run a bike? Yeah yeah. But we're going on the Upper West Side and I

noticed at one point there's like a hundred people there doing it with us just like complete strangers and my kids were they're only 10 and 11 11 so few was actually like super afraid of it because it's like you have all these like professional writers like And you're on rental bikes, yeah, you're going like down these big hills But it just felt so cool doing that with this community of strangers then similarly at Katz deli Which is like the best place to eat in New York for 20 bucks. And you're just enjoying this like pastrami sandwich with like a few hundred strangers

and everybody's just like loving themselves. I don't know, they're just both simple things, but like having a shared experience with a bunch of strangers was really cool. And in the biggest city in our country, that's very, very cool. Yeah, that's not bad. I'm glad your daughter's got to experience that.

It's pretty cool. All right, everybody, shop talk number 60. When we get back from the break, it's going to be about somebody who took an interest in me. And what an idiot. What an idiot. Yeah, what an idiot. He took an interest in me.

And um, he passed away recently. And um, I want to share with you guys in Shop Talk, since we're just sitting around the shop, um, some of my perspectives of a man who's changed the world, who I got to become friends with, um, right after these brief messages from our center sponsors. Everybody, Bill Courtney, welcome back. Shop Talk number 60. Saturday June 21st, Fred Smith passed away. I think it was 81.

80. 80? Yeah. And I guess the only good FedEx. Fred Smith was a devoted father, husband, chief executive officer, and founder of a company that has changed the way the world does business. He was a Marine. He loved football. And most important to people around my parts, he's probably the most important Memphian to ever be in our city. And, you know, for those outside of Memphis,

you may not know that Clarence Saunders, the man who invented the modern supermarket, was called Pickley Wigley. But Kroger and the way everybody shops nowadays, that was actually started here in Memphis. Autozone, the company that revolutionized the way do-it-yourselfers get auto parts. Bit Hyde, that was started here in Memphis. the company that revolutionized the way do-it-yourselfers get auto parts. Bit Hyde, that was started here in Memphis. Terminix, Terminites, all that started here in Memphis. The way we travel was completely changed by Kimmins Wilson, started here in Memphis. Holiday Inn. What'd I say?

You just didn't say it. Holiday Inn, Right. The founder of Holiday Inn, which now the Marriott, the Hilton, the Hampton Inn, pretty much the way everybody travels now was revolutionized by this idea of the Holiday Inn that was started here in Memphis. So I could go on and on. XAI coming up. XAI coming up XI coming up that's in Memphis I could go on and on and on about there's something in the water around Memphis about entrepreneurism and startup companies that have become household names and we Memphians are proud of that but none reaches the pinnacle that Fred Smith and FedEx have reached in terms of not only its meager beginnings,

but what it has meant to our city, the state, and the world and the way we do business. When I got to meet Mr. Smith, it was simply because he's a huge football fan and Mike Ray, my very close buddy, who was the offensive line coach, had O.C. Brown living with him to help him get tutored for his ACT so he could qualify to get a scholarship for football. And 60 minutes actually to did a segment on it and I remember Robin Roberts sitting in Mike's living room talking to Mike and I see and thinking how surreal is this we're just coaching football and 60 Minutes is down there talking about this is long before undefeated or the movie or any of

that and Mike worked for FedEx he He was a salesperson for Custom Critical Division. And out of the blue one day, Mike gets an email from his boss that says, hey, Fred Smith wants to have lunch with you. And of course, Mike's first response was, you know, whatever, screw you, get out of here, because he thought it was a joke. I mean you know and for context we should have said this earlier the employee 500,000 people yeah which is an amazing contribution of the world but also why you think it would be a joke. Yeah that's right and then the guy said no I'm serious. Fred wants to have lunch with you and wants to have lunch with your buddy Bill. So we went to lunch with Fred

which was you know I mean how often do you get to have lunch with one of the more powerful CFOs, CEOs in the world? So it was just an honor. And actually, he took our numbers and he kept in touch with me. And when I wrote my book Against the Grain, there's a chapter that has a lot to do with the perspectives and lessons that I've learned from him. And he would agree, he rarely did interviews and he agreed to be interviewed and I spent hours with him on that. And that's really why I'm talking is I want to share with you guys three things that I learned from the late great Fred Smith. I can't believe I'm actually I'm starting to tear up a little bit thinking about it because

here's this powerful guy I mean he was asked by three different presidents to serve as Secretary of Defense one Democrat and two Republicans. This is a powerful man who took time to care about me and other people in our community. He's just an incredible man, but the first thing that I learned from him is he hates the story that he failed, that he got an F on his. He wrote a paper about FedEx as an idea before he started it. And the world out there says there's this folklore story that FedEx was started off of a term paper he wrote that he was failed in. He was not failed, he got to be modest.

But it is true that his professor thought his idea was stupid. But he did not fail. He also hates the folklore story that at one time they flew a FedEx plane to Vegas and wagered all the money they have left to make payroll He said that is a fabrication and a complete lie. He said I did however like to go to Vegas and play blackjack He never gambled the company on it And if you knew him better you would understand why that story doesn't even fit the persona because the man is unbelievably detailed on organized, detailed and plans.

He would never have wagered anything that mattered on a roulette wheel. So one, the first thing I want to share with you guys is, unfortunately, a lot of those pop culture stories out there are rooted in some little fact, but have manifested themselves over time into stories that are patently false. Did you know that? I've heard pushback, but I was wondering, yeah, what the truth is or not.

Well, I just told you what the truth was. And I'm not getting this from a second hand source. The man sat across from me at Grisoni's on one of our many lunches eating pasta Bitching about how much he hated those stories Wonder story I heard I wonder if it's true is like they were I think they were struggling though Oh, they struggled early. Yeah, they had they had they had two or three calls From shareholders that had they not stepped up They may not have made it and I think early on I did hear a story that like some of the drivers were even paying

Their own gas out of their own pocket. That is absolutely But they also that tells that tells you how much they actually believed in the company traded stock options He gave some people stock for doing that. That is that is absolutely true. All right, so that's one. Lots of falsehoods out there, but the reality is those things. So now you know some inside scoop. Number two, he did not start FedEx to move packages. That's one that everybody goes, really? Here's what happened.

Oh, his computer parts. That's one that everybody goes, really? Here's what happened. Oh, it's computer parts. That's exactly right. Back in the late 60s, it used to be that banks had floors and floors of human clerks entering checks and subtracting money from accounts and keeping up with it just very, I mean, by hand, right? Files and files of paperwork. And IBM started the supercomputer, which started, and at that time it had the computing, I mean, the computers they

built would take up three stories of a building that had less computing power than what each of us have on our phone right now. But back then there were these massive, huge machines, literally took up two and three story buildings, but they replaced all of these clerks. So it made sense for banks and it was faster and everything else. The problem is when you have 500 clerks do an entry at Bank of America and five don't show up for work, no big deal. But when you replace all of these people

with this massive computer and the computer goes down, now banking collapses. So it was actually Mr. Smith's idea originally that you would have to get parts as the computer age Started replacing human beings if the computer went down Commerce would stop so it would be imperative that you could get computer parts to the computer to replace them overnight So that you would not have Disruption in the banking system. So he

created FedEx to service this growing industrialization of computers in banking, in finance, in newspaper, anything that was daily and ongoing and it morphed into packages and then it morphed into mail frankly so the truth is FedEx was not about moving packages originally is about moving computer parts but the same dynamic that made that a successful business enterprise then made the growth of the company applicable to all kinds of other types of business which I found vastly interesting. Another thing along those lines is because he grew up in Marks, Mississippi and was from this area, everyone thinks that he just put it in Memphis because of centrally located.

It's also not the case. He did an enormous amount of study and Memphis has the least amount of nighttime fog of any city in the United States, which is why FedEx is here, because he knew planes would be leaving and arriving and leaving during the late hours of the night and early morning hours, and he wanted the best weather conditions to reduce flight disruptions, and because Memphis had the least amount of fog between hours of 10 p.m. And 4 a.m That's why Memphis was the best place for FedEx that and only that was the main reason which I find vastly interesting

I did not know that thanks for teaching me bill. You're welcome. I'm not teaching anything I'm just repeating some things this guy told me over lunch one day that I think is Fascinating The third thing and probably the most profoundly important, FedEx was very important to Mr. Smith, but it was not number one and it was not number two. He would always, without hesitation, say that the most important thing to him in his world was his family and Number two was the Marine Corps and Number three was FedEx

He served for the Marines during the Vietnam War and He was actually Part of the mechanized division that did an enormous amount of moving of equipment and supplies to and from the troops, which is where he got an enormous amount of experience in the hub and spoke idea, which is in the military they would bring everything into a central area and then send it out to wherever the parts were needed. And he found that to be the most efficient way to move supplies, which is why when he started FedEx, he hubbed everything in Memphis and spoke to the rest of the country rather

than flying from, you know, New York, Chicago and then New York to Philly and then Chicago to wherever and then Dallas to wherever. That's why everything comes into a central hub in Memphis and then is spoke out to the rest of the country because he learned that from this time in the military, which I think is also really, really interesting that the concept came from his real life experience as a Marine. The other thing about his time in the Marines is there was a man, Father Capodano. I encourage you to Google Father Capodano. Fred Smith served with Father Capodano and even routinely visited Father Capodano's grave on Staten Island.

I'm not going to tell you the story of Father Capodanno because this is Fred Smith, but know that this titan of industry, this man that changed the world, almost would never have a conversation about any influence on his life without saying the name Father Capodano. We can say a couple things quick. All right. These guys smoke cigarettes together, Father Capodano and Fred Smith. They played blackjack together.

Because of all this, they called Father the grunt Padre because he was actually a man of the people in there and Father ended up being shot several times in this battle And I think was finally killed when he got shot like 26 times 26 bullets in him and he's one of only four priests who ever received the Medal of Honor and Fred has said a couple interesting things like father helped bring me back to my faith He also had some kind of quote, like, it also gave me the courage to start FedEx.

Like, the currency in Vietnam is death. The currency of starting a business is you fail and you do something else. Business death. Yeah. So yeah, it had a remarkable impact. And as you mentioned, Billy, he sent me that email a couple of years ago when I was trying

to get him to do an interview with me about father Capitano and he said no because he rarely does interviews, but he almost never did was yeah, he did one down with you, but He said that thing of yeah, I go and visit his grave. That's how much the man You know means to me, you know this billionaire the fact that he still has you know This massive heart and even frankly I've kept that email for years. And I think I'm gonna try to always. You should never, I would print it and frame it if I were you.

Just the fact that he even responded to you as well. Yeah, to a nobody like me is just an amazing testimony. That's just kinda how he was. You know, and he's got a son that coaches pro football, he's got a daughter that produces movies, he's got a son that's in the business, he's got grandchildren and children everywhere, he's got a son that's in the business. He's got Grandchildren children everywhere. He's got grandchildren been the Naval Academy. I mean he's

he's This guy that's done all these things But at the end of the day he has never quit seeing himself as just a normal guy a normal folk and he always Was happy to invest in the city and people doing good in the city invested in me invest in a lot of people I know he made many many many many people millionaires through their business he absolutely elevated the lives of many people in the city and across the world. He changed the way we do business and he did it all from Memphis while never

forgetting his roots of a guy from Marks Mississippi, who was a Marine, who was loved by a guy named Father Capodanno, who always had time for the normal guy like me. And I think the world is a smaller place with him not in it. And Saturday, June 21st of 2025 will be a day that I just never forget. Because in my opinion, we lost one of the more special people to ever walk the face of this planet. So, shop talk number 60 is farewell to Fred Smith, Godspeed, and well done Mr. Smith. For you, for your family, for our city, city for the state and for the world you will be

missed that shop told number 60 Alex anything else I think little known fact he was one of the producers of the blindside to right maybe I do know this do you remember the movie Tom Hanks lost? Mm hmm. What? No, not lost. What was it? Castaway. Castaway? Yeah. Everybody at FedEx did not want him to do that movie.

Do you want to know why? Yeah, Smith was a major investor in Alcon Entertainment, which produced The Blind Side. There you have it. Do you know why they didn't want him to do Castaway? Because it was a package that was lost, right? No. I haven't seen the movie in forever.

Because it was a FedEx plane that wrecked and went down into the ocean. Like, no airline wants to do a movie about their plane wrecking in the ocean. He said, I don't care. And he and Tom Hanks came really close buddies after that. And when Mr. Smith wanted to raise some money for something, some years later, he got Tom Hanks back,

and Tom came back and worked with him on it. So he just, far reaching guy. Really, really amazing man. The reason I brought up the blind side too is, I mean, not just as a fun fact, but it inspired thousands of people to adopt. I it was actually a really big deal they're really really big deal and you know the reason he invested and I'm sure is a myth of story you know so that's it mr. Smith I want to say mr. Smith was my friend but I

think he might have considered me a friend, but I don't even consider myself. Uh, I almost feel like it would be condescending for me to say to Mr. Smith. He was my friend, maybe a mentor. I don't know. Some I don't even know what the word is, but certainly someone I had enormous my respect for and I think will be missed. And so shop talk number 60 is a farewell to a very good man. Fred Smith, Saturday, June 21st, 2025 will be a day that this world will be known for having lost a really, really good human being. And believe it or not, despite the fact he's a billionaire and all of the things he still saw himself as a member of the army of normal folks. And that's maybe

what's most beautiful about the guy. And if you have tributes to other people, that's a good plug for that. People that you want to pay tribute to in your life who meant a lot to you, email us at armyofnormalfolks.us or billitnormalfolks.us and we'd love to look at it. That's right. Rate us, review us, subscribe to the podcast, all that other stuff that we always ask you to do. Please do it. That feels inappropriate after paying tribute to Fred Smith. I know it does, but you know, whatever. He was also one hell of a marketer, so I don't think he'd mind. That's it, Chap Talk number 60.

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