評論
打印
A Central Hub
中心樞紐
Smith completed two tours in Vietnam, eventually flying more than 200 ground-support missions. While on his first tour, in Vietnam, he survived an ambush that left most of his company dead. During the assault he became separated from his gun, but he managed to retrieve the weapon in time to bring down a Vietcong soldier who was about to attack him. He had also learned a valuable lesson from the war. "There're only three things you gotta remember," he said, "shoot, move, and communicate."
史密斯在越南參加了兩次飛行，總共完成了200多次地面支援飛行任務。在越南的第一次飛行中，他們遭遇突襲，戰友大多數都犧牲了，而他僥幸生還。戰斗中，他的槍支脫手，但他及時奪回武器并擊斃了一名正準備攻擊他的越南士兵。戰爭給史密斯上了寶貴的一課。他說：“你只需記住3件事：開槍、移動和聯絡。”
Home from Vietnam, Smith became fascinated by the notion that if you connected all the points of a network through a central hub, the efficiency could be enormous, whether the system involved moving packages and letters or people and planes. With an investment from his father's company, as well as a chunk of his own inheritance, Smith bought his first Dassault Falcon planes, and in 1971 formed the Federal Express Corporation.
從越南回來后，史密斯開始執著于這樣一種想法，如果把網絡內所有的點都連接到一個中心樞紐，無論是運送包裹和信件，還是人和飛機，都會極富效率。他拿著父親企業的投資以及一大部分繼承的財產，購買了第一架達索爾特鷹式飛機。1971年，史密斯創辦了聯邦快遞公司。
