January 28, 2007 Paul Orfalea, Kinko's Founder, To Lecture on How To Succeed in Business and in Life, Feb. 26

Paul Orfalea, the creative and inspiring founder of Kinko’s (now FedEx Kinko’s), will discuss his theories and instincts on how to succeed, in business and in life, Feb. 26 in a lecture at the Library of Congress.

Orfalea will base his talk on his memoir, which he co-wrote with Ann Marsh, titled “Copy This! Lessons from a Hyperactive Dyslexic Who Turned a Bright Idea into One of America’s Best Companies.” The lecture will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 26, in the West Dining Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.

The event, sponsored by the Library’s Science, Technology and Business Division, is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required. Maps and directions to the Library are available at www.loc.gov/loc/maps.

Orfalea began his business in a converted hamburger stand with a single copy machine and a $5,000 loan. He turned his entrepreneurial vision into a $2 billion-a-year company with more than 1,500 branches and 21,000 co-workers worldwide. Orfalea’s success is especially impressive, in that he suffers from attention deficit disorder and dyslexia, and had struggled through school, failing two grades.

In “Copy This!” Orfalea details how he used these potential liabilities to develop unorthodox approaches and create a culture at Kinko’s that made the company, according to Fortune, Forbes and Working Mother magazines, one of the best places to work in America.

In 2000, Orfalea retired from his position as Kinko’s chairperson and assumed the role of chairperson emeritus. In 2004, Kinko’s was acquired by the FedEx Corporation; Orfalea is no longer involved with FedEx Kinko’s business management. Orfalea refers to his retirement as being “repurposed” and is now involved in a range of businesses, including financial asset management and business investment firms.

Orfalea speaks to business groups and to organizations focused on learning differences. He frequently teaches at University of Southern California (his alma mater), University of California (UC) Davis and UC Santa Barbara, as well as various community and state colleges. California Polytechnic State University has dedicated a business school in the Orfalea name in honor of his ongoing contributions.

The Library of Congress maintains one of the largest and most diverse collections of scientific and technical information in the world. The Science, Technology and Business Division provides reference and bibliographic services and develops the general collections of the Library in all areas of science, technology, business and economics, with the exception of clinical medicine and technical agriculture, which are the subject specialties of the National Library of Medicine and the National Agricultural Library.