Vietnam Veteran Started FEDEX and Spread Encouragement

A Marine Gives Back
FORBES
Don Esmond
February 17, 2017

Cori says they chose the fund to honor veterans. “The fund bridges the gap when service men and women return home and are awaiting certain VA pay and benefits but are in immediate need and would otherwise be unable, or severely financially harmed, to fulfill such needs on their own.

Beau and Cori O’Steen (Beau O'Steen)

When Frederick W. Smith was an undergrad at Yale, he wrote a paper outlining his plans to start a company to deliver urgent, time-sensitive shipments nationwide. He only got a “C” on the paper because his professor didn’t think the plan was “feasible.”

However, after serving as a Marine officer in Vietnam, he put what he had learned to good use. The result was FedEx. Indeed, he credits his military experience for part of his success. “Nothing has prepared business leaders better for their role in business and society than the lessons they learned in the Corps – lessons of discipline, organization, commitment and integrity.”

While not every veteran can build a booming global enterprise like FedEx, I know from personal experience that what veterans learn while serving our country has real application in the civilian world and can make a real difference in the civilian workplace.

That’s as true for post 9/11 veterans as it was for Vietnam vets, like Fred Smith and me. A case in point is Beau O’Steen, who joined the Marine Corps right out of high school in 1999. As a Marine infantryman, he deployed three times during the next six years.
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