While on vacation, I took a tour of the Hershey Corporation campus. During the tour I got a lot of Milton Hershey history. This was quite an amazing guy. You could say he was inspirational. He started working when he was 15. That was probably normal for his times. But then he started his own company when he turned 19. That sounds a lot like Bill Gates. Mister Hershey's first company was nothing like Microsoft though.Milton Hershey's first candy company went bankrupt. So did his second, third, and fourth companies. I think he had a fifth company that also went belly up. Sugar was just too expensive to turn a profit in the candy business. But even after all these failures, his motto was to never give up. Those are words to live by.
Mr. Hershey talked his aunt into mortgaging her house. With the proceeds, Hershey founded the chocolate company that is still alive and kicking today. I hear it is worth billions of dollars. Hershey weathered many failures. His grit helped him persevere through many failed companies. In the end he triumphed.
Here is the real amazing part. When Mr. Hershey finally turned his company around into a smashing success, he toured the country with his wife. He found there were many orphanages overrun with boys that nobody wanted. So he took a bunch in to live with his family. He later went on to found a school that took in orphans, schooled them, taught them a trade, and paid for them to live while they studied. This was no free ride. The orphan boys needed to work hard on the Hershey farms. But they had a home and a future. Here's to you Mr. Hershey. May we all learn and benefit from your lifetime achievements.
