The Blackjack Gamble That Changed Everything

"Would you bet your company’s last \$5,000 on a hand of blackjack?"That’s exactly what Fred Smith—the founder of FedEx—did in 1973. And in this episode of The Ben and Skin Show, Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray unpack the jaw-dropping story of how one man’s Vegas gamble saved a now-\$50 billion company. The FedEx Origin Story You Won’t Believe
KT shares the legendary tale of Fred Smith flying to Vegas with FedEx’s last \$5,000—and returning with \$27,000 after a blackjack hot streak that literally saved the company.Plus, it turns out Fred Smith’s son is none other than Arthur Smith, former Falcons head coach and current Steelers OC. “Tough year for Arthur—his dad died, and now he’s gotta deal with Aaron Rodgers.”

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's the Bennets skin Show, the only show in the

(00:01):
Netflex with the balls to ask, who cat is this?
This segment's brought you our buddy, brought to you by
our buddy, Rodney Anderson. Rodney Anderson, give him a call
if you have questions about do it a cash out refinanswer,
you're just curious about what your options are. He's an
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earlier today. Nine ninety five fifty two hundred nine seven
nine eight five fifty two hundred. You may have a

(00:23):
bunch of debt, but you might have equity in your house.
You won't know until you call Rodney just to pick
his brain, get his advice. Ninety five fifty two hundred.
But right now it's time for this.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Give me that news quickie. This is a story from
the weekend as we have had a death Fred Smith
that at the edge of eighty one. I'm sorry eighty
Fred Smith is the guy who founded FedEx. Do you
know anything about this guy?

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Is?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Uh? He hired Tom Hanks and then Tom Hanks crashed.
That's what reference. Yeah, you saw the last twenty minutes of.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, that's a good movie. I like those twenty minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Fred Smith, by the way, yes, ten kids. One of
his sons is former Falcons head coach current Pittsburgh Steelers
offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. So a tough year for Arthur
Smith as his dad died and now he's got to
deal with Aaron Rodgers. Fred Smith. Fedix obviously huge, but
kind of a wild story. FedEx would not be around

(01:22):
if it wasn't for some good luck from old fred Smith,
because in nineteen seventy three, that's when they launched, but
they didn't have a lot of money. In fact, they
were running out of money and one investor meeting had
gone so poorly that he hopped on a plane with
the remaining five thousand dollars that the company had and

(01:43):
played blackjack. God, this guy's a hero, and he came
home from Las Vegas with twenty seven thousand dollars, So
five thousand down twenty seven thousand dollars back, and it
was enough to keep the company going for another couple weeks,
and then they raised enough money.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
He's the Everly Jones of shipping. God. She did say
she put five grand on a hand, right, yeah, and
which means it's probably ten.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, right, now it is illegal to take company funds
and go gambling with that, But in nineteen seventy three you're.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Not frowned upon.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
But I question that too much.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
I don't know that there were rules in nineteen seventy three.
Were there? I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
For anything, I don't really think there were. Honestly, it's
now a fifty billion dollar company, so they've done well,
doing pretty good. Now, there's nothing I was thinking about
some other companies who had good luck. Zoom had such
good luck. I mean, Covid was so good for Zoom.
We were still talking about skyping. We were talking about well,

(02:45):
that's really the two I guess, yeah, But there were
all the onse who were trying to get out there.
Zoom without the pandemic. I don't know what they are, dude,
Microsoft without IBM, there is no Microsoft. I was saying
about Twitter. Twitter's there's a side product project from some bros.
You know, And then all of a sudden, Oh, the
Internet is starting to take off and people are fund

(03:06):
to bike, social Facebook happens, Oh we can do a
little more with that. You're just all good luck, and
that's really good, but no better luck than winning at
black jack. Was such a fun game. But to come
out of that up twenty two k to keep the
company going. You're our celebrity death of the way.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
That's great man.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Sorry to Ralph Mick of a bad Company at the
age of eighty one who died. Fred Smith is our
celebrity death of the week.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
All right, thank you, Kevin. We've got Jaws's turning fifty.
We'll talk a little Jaws. Big news for Texas. This
is a decision made by lawmakers and then we'll get
into the NBA finals. All that's coming your way in
the five o'clock hour. That've been in skin Show