John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Colonel Sanders

When I was about 6 or 7 years old I had an interaction with Colonel Sanders and he shared with me some pretty profound business wisdom.

We were at the Colonel’s Lady (Claudia Sanders) restaurant in Shelbyville, and the waitress had just brought rolls to the table.

The Colonel patiently showed me, a fidgety little boy, how to take the butter pats and mash and mix them with just the right amount of honey and then to smear the gold and yellow concoction on to a piece of the roll.

I loved it and wanted to keep eating the honey buttered rolls, but he stopped me because, he explained, his restaurant philosophy was to always leave the customer “wanting a little more” when they left— so they would come back.

That’s the opposite of the he-man meals restaurants feed us now….but I think the Colonel right.

In fact, that philosophy is good advice for many areas in our personal lives as well as in a variety of service industries.

But the advice I cherish the most from the Colonel –and have put the most frequent use in my life—was how to mix butter and honey for rolls.