“Therefore do not be foolish and thoughtless, but understand and firmly grasp what the will of the Lord is.” – Ephesians 5:17 Amplified Bible.
In 1872, at age 14, Milton took a job at Royer’s Ice Cream Parlor in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After a short period, he convinced the owner to move him from the ice cream section into the candy side of the business. It made him a lifelong confectioner.
Milton took what he learned from Mr. Royer’s shop and set off at age 19 for Philadelphia, where he aimed to cater to the huge crowds attending the country’s Centennial Exhibition. There he started his first company, Spring Garden Confectionary Works, and sold taffy to many happy customers. He loved to experiment with candy recipes and soon produced a soft, chewy caramel that proved to be a big hit.
Things went well for the company for a while, even after the Exhibition ended, but Milton increasingly found it hard to deal with emerging competition and keep his costs under control. In the year he turned 24, the Spring Garden Confectionery Works failed completely.
He headed to Chicago where he teamed up with his father, Henry, to open a candy shop which they abandoned after a few months’ struggle. Milton decided to go to New York for a new venture which also ended in 1886 just as the ones in the other cities did—in bankruptcy. Penniless and now approaching 30 years of age, he went back to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he first learned to make candy a decade and a half before.
Some people in the same predicament might have given up, changed professions, or simply found a job working for somebody else. Not Milton. He was determined to be the success his father wasn’t, and in the one business he loved more than any other. His own relatives gave up on him and turned him down for another loan. But he formed a new enterprise nonetheless—the Lancaster Caramel Company—and prepared to give it a whirl.
This time, Milton got it right. He had learned much from his earlier mistakes. His exceptional caramels took off. Milton and his company prospered quickly. He became a prominent and respected Pennsylvania businessman, employing hundreds of people. Attending the Columbian Exposition (or “World’s Fair”) in Chicago in 1893 was a turning point for Milton as he visited a German company’s extensive chocolate exhibit equipped with a small factory that transformed cocoa beans into candy bars.
Chocolate at the time was a rich man’s luxury, unaffordable to the average American. So smitten with it was Milton that when the Exposition closed, he arranged to buy the entire exhibit, factory, and all. He had made his money in caramels but decided in Chicago that caramel was a passing fad. The future is in chocolate.
He opened his first chocolate factory in 1894 in the little town of Derry Church. The town was renamed after Milton`s last name and has been known ever since as Hershey, Pennsylvania. Milton never again worried about bankruptcy. He and his wife founded a famous school for orphan boys, now one of the richest schools in the world because of the endowment they bequeathed it. Milton died in 1945 at the age of 86, beloved by the citizens of Hershey, PA, and legions of chocolate lovers in some 70 countries.
Milton Hershey was to chocolate what Henry Ford was to automobiles, and Steve Jobs was to computers: He revolutionized a luxury for the few into a treat for the masses. Milton believed that business is a matter of human service, and he was ready to persevere because he believed that GOD`S WILL for him is BETTER THINGS than all the failures he has experienced in his early days. Hershey Company is one of the largest and most successful chocolate manufacturers on the planet today (about $8 billion in sales in 2019), though it’s worth noting that its founder, Milton Hershey tasted failure before he ever enjoyed the flavor of success!
What are you ready to endure to experience the better things that God has in store for you? Remember, quitters never win, and winners never quit! When you persist, God will assist you beyond what you can ever think or imagine like he did for Milton Hershey because GOD`S WILL FOR YOU IS BETTER THINGS! (see Ephesians 3:20 and Hebrews 6:9). [To be concluded next week].
