Folger is the founder of the Folger’s coffee business out of San Francisco, CA. He had success by reaching the gold-miners during the 1850s gold rush. The thing that inspires me most about James Athearn Folger is his constant ability to learn from new and difficult circumstances. 


As the whaling industry in the Northeast began to struggle, many whaling ships went to California searching for gold. In the fall of 1849, the year gold in California was discovered, James was 14 years old. He got in a boat in New England with his brothers (16 & 20 years old) and took the boat to California. 


The problem with going to California in 1849 is that you had to go by boat through Panama. Which is what him and his brothers decided to do. Can you imagine a 20, 16, and 14 year old today having the audacity to do that? 
The trip to Panama took them a long time, and they stayed in Panama City for months, crossing the isthmus on rafts and by hiking. After about 8 months, the brothers finally hitched a ride on a mail-carrying boat to San Francisco and arrived there May 1850 with nothing. 


Folger had built some skills as a carpenter working for his father in New England who was a blacksmith, and he was hired to build a spice and coffee mill downtown San Francisco. 


This opportunity allowed him the ability to learn a ton about the coffee and spice industry, and he eventually made really good money by bringing coffee samples in tin cans to grocers and gold-miners. He made enough money to start his own store, which he sold, giving him enough to buy out the other partners in the business. 


At just 24 years old, Folger founded the JA Folger Coffee Company. 
The Folger company continued to build the business and eventually sold to Procter & Gamble in 1963. Folgers was then sold to Smuckers for $3 Billion in 2008. 


I think this story is such a great example of being hungry to learn new industries. The whaling industry died, so James Folger and his brothers went to the other side of the continent in order to learn about gold… Meanwhile, they struck gold in the coffee business. You can never guess where the success will come from, but you have to continue to learn. 
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