Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode four eighty five. Today, I want to tell
Speaker 2: you a story. A story about a man who failed
Speaker 2: more times than most of us could tolerate, yet built
Speaker 2: one of the sweetest empires in the world. His name
Speaker 2: is Milton Hershey, the man behind the Hershey Chocolate Company.
Speaker 2: Milton Hershey's story begins in rural Pennsylvania in the mid
Speaker 2: eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: He grew up poor, with little formal.
Speaker 2: Education and a father who couldn't provide stability. At age fourteen,
Speaker 2: Hershey dropped out of school and started apprenticing with a printer.
Speaker 2: That didn't last long. He was fired, But instead of
Speaker 2: quitting on life, he tried something new, candy making. And
Speaker 2: here's where the story gets interesting. His first business in
Speaker 2: Philadelphia failed. He lost everything, so he moved to Denver
Speaker 2: and tried again. Failed. Chicago failed, New York City failed again.
Speaker 2: By the time he returned home, Hershey had been knocked
Speaker 2: down by failure so many times that most people would
Speaker 2: have quit. But Hershey wasn't most people. He believed in
Speaker 2: one thing, candy. He had learned enough from his failures
Speaker 2: to know there was a better way. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: he launched the Lancaster Carmel Company. This time he struck gold.
Speaker 2: His caramel was different. It was made with fresh milk,
Speaker 2: and the taste caught on like wildfire. Within a few years,
Speaker 2: Hershey was shipping caramels all over the world.
Speaker 1: World.
Speaker 2: Now here's the real leadership. Lesson Milton. Hershey had finally
Speaker 2: built success, but he wasn't satisfied. He saw the future
Speaker 2: was chocolate. At the time, chocolate was considered a luxury
Speaker 2: item imported from Europe, too expensive for the average person.
Speaker 2: But Hershey had a vision chocolate for everyone. So he
Speaker 2: sold his caramel company for a million dollars, which in
Speaker 2: today's money would have been about thirty million. Then he
Speaker 2: beted all on chocolate. Think about that for a second.
Speaker 2: He had failed over and over, finally built a thriving
Speaker 2: business and then sold it to chase another idea. That
Speaker 2: takes courage, that takes vision, that takes real leadership. In
Speaker 2: nineteen hundred, Milton Hershey released his first milk chocolate bar,
Speaker 2: and by nineteen oh five he opened the Hershey Chalk
Speaker 2: Company factory in Dairy Township, Pennsylvania, right in the middle
Speaker 2: of Dairy Country, so he could have access to fresh milk.
Speaker 2: But Hershey's vision wasn't just about making candy. It was
Speaker 2: also about building a community. He built the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: with homes, schools, transportation, parks, even a theater. He believed
Speaker 2: his workers deserved a quality life, not just a paycheck.
Speaker 2: When the Great Depression hit in the nineteen thirties, instead
Speaker 2: of laying off employees, Hershey launched construction projects, building Hershey Park, hotels,
Speaker 2: even a sports arena, just to keep people working in
Speaker 2: the Success didn't stop there. During World War Two, Hershey
Speaker 2: produced over a billion specially designed Hershey's ration bars for
Speaker 2: US troops. It wasn't just candy, it was fuel for soldiers,
Speaker 2: and it built morale leadership that serves beyond profit. But
Speaker 2: Hershey's greatest legacy wasn't chocolate, it was people. In nineteen
Speaker 2: oh nine, he and his wife founded a school for
Speaker 2: orphaned boys what is now the Milton Hershey School. One
Speaker 2: of the wealthiest and most impactful private schools in the nation,
Speaker 2: and when he died in nineteen forty five, Hershey left
Speaker 2: nearly his entire fortune to the school. Today that school
Speaker 2: educates thousands of children every year, funded by the chocolate Empire.
Speaker 2: Milton Hershey built from failure after failure. So what are
Speaker 2: the leadership lessons with this story? Number one, Failure is
Speaker 2: not the end. Milton Hershey failed multiple times before success
Speaker 2: ever found him. Each failure gave him experience for the
Speaker 2: next step of his life. Number two, bet on your vision.
Speaker 2: He saw hold a successful company because he saw the future.
Speaker 2: Leaders don't play small when they see opportunity. And number
Speaker 2: three people matter. Hershey built a community, not just a company.
Speaker 2: He invested in his employees, his town, in children who
Speaker 2: would never even know him. And number four, legacy outlives you.
Speaker 2: Hershey's chocolate bars may melt, but his impact on education
Speaker 2: and community is solid and lasting. So Milton Hershey reminds
Speaker 2: us that leadership isn't just about what you build, it's
Speaker 2: about who benefits from what you build. His life teaches
Speaker 2: us that sometimes the sweetest success is born from the
Speaker 2: most bitter failures. And if you haven't done so, please
Speaker 2: five star review the show and share it with a colleague.
Speaker 2: I thank you for your continued support and hoping this
Speaker 2: show grow and reach as many leaders as it can
Speaker 2: around the world. This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast,
Speaker 2: and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.