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Fred DeLuca was born on 3 October 1947.
After graduating from high school, he was looking for a way to help pay for his college tuition.
He turned to a family friend, Dr. Peter Buck, who suggested he start a sandwich shop. He lent him $1000 and Fred opened ‘Pete’s Submarines’.
Soon after, he opened another store, and changed the name to Subway. He graduated from University of Bridgeport then focused solely on Subway.
At 27 he began franchising, followed by the introduction of the BMT Sandwich, the 6 inch sandwich and freshly baked bread.
At 43, he opened the 5000th store.
Two decades later, in his sixties, Subway had over 40,000 stores.
Sadly, he died on 14 September 2015 after a battle with leukemia.
In 2023, Subway was sold for $9.6b.
One Lesson from Fred DeLuca
Thinking Small is OK initially.
Fred only wanted to pay for his college tuition. Nothing more, nothing less.
His first shop was struggling yet instead of giving up, DeLuca opened a second location believing the visibility would drive more business. He was right.
But his eyes were still on one prize — college tuiton.
He did not set out to create a global franchise bigger than McDonalds.
Entrepreneurs today set out to ‘change the world’, ‘make a billion dollars’, or build a ‘unicorn’ way too often.
Start small. One step at a time. Make it easy to achieve.