• Home
  • The Book
  • The Author
  • Events
  • The Blog
  • Failures Within
  • Contact

Seek to Misconstrue   + a

Failure: The Blog  

August 2018

  • When This Executive Was Fired, He Took Charge
  • Obeying The Speed Limit Has Never Been More Fun
  • London Black Cabs Helped Uber Grow
  • Bette Graham Created A Product To Fix Her Mistakes
  • Flamin' Hot Cheetos Had An Interesting Start

July 2018

  • Fear This Instead Of Failure
  • Re-Releasing Songs Created Success
  • A CEO's Purposeful Mistake
  • The Tardy Student And The Unsolvable Problem
  • Fixing Potholes Through Graffiti

June 2018

  • A Surprising Mistake In The Oxford English Dictionary
  • US Army Embraces Mistakes
  • Blocking A Hymn
  • Eddie Shore Was Truly A Tough Guy
  • [Video] Elon Musk Didn't "Pivot" He Failed

May 2018

  • 8 Examples of Mental Toughness Part 2
  • Necessity Turned Accessory: Allen Iverson's Sleeve
  • This Doctor Has Continued To Fail
  • 8 Examples of Mental Toughness
  • MIT Accidentally Creates New Smelting Process

April 2018

  • Johnny Cash Quit Singing Lessons
  • Cruise Control Came Out of Frustration
  • Time Spent Gaming Pays Off In The Navy
  • Rock Around The Clock Was a Commercial Failure
  • Sigmund Freud Should Have Been Discouraged

March 2018

  • Superman Couldn't Fly
  • This School Shares Failures
  • Jim Croce's Parents Hoped He Would Fail

[More archives...]

« 40 Years of Nightmares
Tom Schuman Screwed Up »

The Truck Driver’s Victory

July 20th, 2011 - by Robby Slaughter

We tend to assume that successful people are born into wealth and never have to work a hard day in their life. What about the former president of nation of a hundred million people?

The official biography of Vicente Fox, who was the elected leader of Mexico from 2000-2006, explains how he got his start. He grew up on a farm as one of nine children. He managed to go to college where he “he recalled his provincial, ‘ranch-style appearance and how it contrasted with that of his classmates.” Fox’s first job after school was as a truck driver for Coca-Cola. Who would have thought that this modest beginning would be the foundation for a political career?

Vicente Fox failure
Photo © Flickr User James Willamor

Fox rose quickly through the ranks of Coca-Cola, and within 10 years became the chief executive of the company’s Mexico operations. The experience gave him the background to consider a run for state office as governor, and later as president.

The moral of the story is this: successful people often start out with careers that many would consider to be a mistake. But failure is the secret to success. Vicente Fox has explained many times that his experience covering thousands of miles in a delivery truck gave him a unique, first-hand knowledge of poverty and struggle in Mexico. Maybe this undesirable job helped make him ready for the top spot in the country.

Share on TumblrSubmit to redditShare via email Share

Related Posts

  1. Google Wave: Failed Victory
    Remember Google Wave, the technology that was supposed to change everything? Google announced it was shutting it down.
  2. Bad Drivers, Bad Roads
    We’ve all complained about bad drivers. In the early days of the 20th century, however, one motorist decided the problem was actually the roads.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 20th, 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


© Copyright 2009-2021 Robby Slaughter - All Rights Reserved • Theme from Web Considerations, LLC