Success secrets of Memphis' most prolific entrepreneur.
What drives an entrepreneur? in this excerpt from his autobiography Half Luck & Half Brains, Memphian Kemmons Wilson reveals the character traits and business savvy that have made him a legend in American business.
At a spring banquet in Pittsburgh in 1982, Kemmons Wilson received an award that brought back memories of the glory days with Holiday Inn. Dinah Shore presented Kemmons with the award from Junior Achievement and Fortune magazine honoring him for induction in the Hall of Fame for U.S. Business Leadership.
In an article profiling Kemmons and other Hall of Fame inductees that year, Fortune magazine wrote, "In every age, some businessmen recognize the opportunity of a lifetime where others see nothing. Whether one calls them mavericks, plungers, visionaries or geniuses, the crucial fact is that such people are rare." With Holiday Inn, it said, Kemmons Wilson and Wallace Johnson "smashed the competition, transformed the industry, and built the world's largest lodging chain."
When Kemmons was a subject of Sybervision System's video Profiles of Achievement a few years later, it asserted that one can trace Kemmons' success through several "key elements" that Sybervision considers common to all leaders and achievers. The profile concluded that Kemmons is a model of achievement we can all learn from because:
* Since childhood, Kemmons has had a strong sense of purpose - never to be hungry again. That is what drove him to work so hard throughout his life. As a means to that end, he became a leader, not for the sake of leading, but to fulfill his purpose.
* Another key factor is his persistence. From the days when he first peddled The Saturday Evening Post as a youngster, through his founding of Holiday Inn, up to his creation of Wilson World and Orange Lake, he has stuck to his goals.
* Knowing his strengths and weaknesses is one of Kemmons' strongest characteristics. He freely admits that he did not have a good education. But he makes up for it by positioning the right people around him. Kemmons says finding those key people has been critical to his success.
* Kemmons has an insatiable curiosity about the way people live and work. He credits that curiosity for some of his best and most valuable ideas.
* Above all, Kemmons really loves his work. He says he is the happiest man who ever lived. And he is quick to remind us, if you are doing things that you like, it's really not work.
