It's not all sweet

Biographies have never been my thing.

But, I’m trying to diversify my reading list and after watching two episodes of the Food That Built America (on the History Channel), I was very curious to learn more about Milton S. Hershey.

I took to the book store to find some good stories about Milton. I’m still working through The Emperors of Chocolate by Joel Glenn Brenner and look forward to learning more about the Hershey/Mars relationship. Another book I found was Hershey by Michael D’Antonio. I really enjoyed this book and wanted to share it with you all on my blog.

As people who’ve read my blog before know, I don’t like to do “reviews”. Instead, I like to share what I’ve learned about writing or self-reflective topics surfaced by the book. I’ll be doing the same here for Hershey by Michael D’Antonio.

TL;DR It is a good book with a lot of perspectives on Milton S. Hershey. Pick it up and enjoy the story of a complex person in a fascinating period of time.

FAILURES AREN’T ALWAYS REMEMBERED

I didn’t know that Hershey had multiple businesses before his chocolate business. Most of those businesses failed. Even after his chocolate empire, Hershey had a lot of failures in business. (Such as his attempted cough drop business) I don’t remember hearing about these challenges during the tour of Chocolate World (a ride at Hershey Park). I didn’t know that Hershey Chocolate was his 6th business and 4 of the 6 businesses went broke. We don’t talk about those businesses and people like me didn’t even know they existed.

My take away, reflect on my own career journey and see what I learned along the way. Hershey learned the recipe to his first successful business while working at a caramel shop in Colorado. He went west with his father to recover from his failures in Philadelphia. This is just one of many stories where Hershey was learning as things were going wrong or as he was licking his wounds.

Learning is always happening and sometimes in unexpected moments ideas solidify into innovations. This made me look to periods in my life when I was coming off a failure. What did I learn? How did/can I use that learning today?

Photo of Milton S. Hershey from Almanac: Candymaker Milton Hershey - CBS News

NO ONE IS SELF MADE

Imagine what freedom having a wealthy family could give you. That’s where Hershey started. His mother’s family funded his early businesses. Their deep pockets let him learn and experiment and try. Ultimately, he learned on their dime (over simplified here) and had the safety net of going back home. This is a great example of “Plan Z” as described by Reed Hoffman and Ben Casnocha in “The Startup of You”.

Plan Z is your ultimate fallback plan. If all else fails, you go to Plan Z. We’ll talk about this more in the Mentor Text: The Start Up of You post coming soon-ish.

His real breakthroughs didn’t occur until the funding stopped. When he was on his own, sink or swim, he found his success. His first successful business, the caramel company, took root when he was cut off from the family fortune. In the book, Hershey says that he knew he had to make the business work because there wasn’t any other options. This was motivating for him.

My take away here, use the support of your network but don’t get so comfortable that you don’t have the fire to ignite success. Having Plan Z is good but don’t let it become a crutch.

STORIES AND PERSPECTIVES

In the book there are a lot of great stories about Hershey from people who knew him. I appreciate how D’Antonio gave a variety of perspectives on Hershey from the workers. I would say “friends” but most of the people in the book were either related or worked for him. Friends didn’t seem to be a thing for Milton. Overall the image painted is very positive - almost too positive for me - but it sounds like many that knew Hershey liked him.

What I liked about the writing style of the book was the blend of telling Hershey’s story and the stories told about Hershey. An example of this was when D’Antonio was describing how Hershey’s caramel company landed it’s first major contract. D’Antonio told the story and weaved in the words of the banker who approved the loan to give more context to the story. The banker’s perspective showed that Hershey was not this flawless human and that people weren’t certain of his success.

In my own writing, I look to use this same technique when it comes to non-fiction writing. Throughout my writing career I’ve tried to make my non-fiction work interesting to read. Many articles have been on topics ranging from Mixed Reality development to thriving in modern business. I’ve used stories and examples throughout my writing to convey the ideas. Reflecting on this, I see even more opportunity to share my message through the words of others as well as my own. I look forward to bringing the stories of others to help illustrate ideas.

COMPLEX PERSON, LASTING INFLUENCE

I grew up going to Hershey Park and can’t count how many times I’ve gone on the Chocolate World ride. Milton S. Hershey was a business person I knew very little about.

After reading Hershey by Michael D’Antonio, I am fascinated by Hershey the man. His vision for a utopian collaboration of society and business is more fascinating to me than his chocolate empire. Maybe that’s what resonated with me the most. The idea that business can do more than profit. It can be a vital component to a healthy world. As we enter into the Fourth Industrial Revolution I wonder about the rise of our generation’s Rockerfellers and Carnegies. But now, I’m much more curious about who the Hershey of our time will be. Who will be bold enough to have a vision beyond business, profit and legacy to work towards a world that our children will want.

I look forward to reflecting on this lesson as I grow my career and companies in the future.