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"NEVER GIVE UP" Story-of-the-day. The Colonel was 60 years old when he had to shut down his restaurant business because a new highway was being built where his restaurant was located. Colonel Sanders decided to retire and lived off of $105 in the form of social security checks. Not wanting to accept this as his fate, he decided to franchise his chicken at the age of 65. He started travelling by car to different restaurants and cooked his fried chicken on the spot for restaurant owners. If the owner liked the chicken, they would enter into a handshake agreement to sell the Colonel's chicken. Colonel Sanders heard 1009 "no's" before he heard his first "yes". Ok, let me repeat that. He was turned down one-thousand and nine times before his chicken was accepted once! The deal was that, for each piece of chicken the restaurant sold, Sanders would receive a nickel. The restaurant would receive packets of Colonel's secret herbs and spices in order to avoid them knowing the recipe. By 1964, Colonel Sanders had 600 franchises selling his trademark chicken. At this time, he sold his company for $2 million dollars but remained as a spokesperson. In 1976, the Colonel was ranked as the world's second most recognizable celebrity.