Harland Sanders was 40 when he put his savings into a small gas station in Corbin, Ky.

FORBES: Why Does America Hate Late Bloomers?

Mr Wilson reckoned that as well as shaking up the hotel industry he had invented franchising, but Ray Kroc of McDonald's and Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken put in claims (and Charles the Great may have started it around 800 when he granted land rights to his supporters).

ECONOMIST: Kemmons Wilson