Frederick W. Smith has not joined FLAPSS and has not endorsed it. This page is a reference record assembled from published interviews and public remarks. Every answer below is a direct quotation with the source and date shown next to it.
Founder and long-serving chairman of FedEx Corporation
United States · 1944–2025
Frederick W. Smith was an American businessman who founded Federal Express in 1971 after serving two tours in Vietnam as a Marine officer. He built the company into the world's largest express transportation network and led it as chairman and chief executive for five decades.
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I was a student at Yale and wrote a paper about the computerized society that was on the horizon. ... Then I sort of let that lie. I didn’t get a particularly good grade on it, as I recall.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, 23 May 1998 source ↗
The most important piece of advice that I could give them is to take advantage of the tremendous reservoir of knowledge that’s out there today. Spend some time learning how the world has evolved. There are a lot of good lessons in history, and other peoples’ experiences in the past, that could be exactly the solution to the problem you’re looking for.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, 23 May 1998 source ↗
Every quotation above is reproduced from the source shown beside it and has not been edited. Frederick W. Smith did not write these answers for FLAPSS. Request a correction or removal.