Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc
The most surprising thing from the reading to me was that Ray Kroc was in his fifties when he started the McDonalds empire. To me always think of entrepreneurs as younger folk so to see a 50 plus year old man start an empire like he has is pretty surprising to me.
I really admired the fact that he never sold anything they didn't need or take advantage of them. He sold what he had and did it in an honest way. Everything he sold he saw as a tool to help other business owners grow and prosper as well much just like what he did with his water cups. The water cups are what taught him how to do business and provided the foundation for everything.
There isnt much I don't admire about him he made a whole lot of something form nothing. One thing I would say is, its not really a lack of admiration but a critique on what he did. He gave up on his paper cup sales for a while to pursue illegal liquor and and a few other business opportunities which at the time I'm sure seemed promising but looking back they weren't the smartest. If he had stuck with the paper cups and the multi mixerfrom the start he could have enjoyed more of his spoils.
While getting involved with the multi mixer corporation he struggled very much. He had to devote close to 60% of his income to put towards capital in order to get that business up and going. He was forced to live off of just 40% of his already small income. Many times his motto was to just grind through it and that is exactly what he did, he made do with what he had and went on with life. He never had major failure in his businesses but came close many many times.
The biggest competency that I saw while reading was his lack of giving up, perseverance played a huge role in him being able to made McDonalds what it is today. Just like the title is named, grinding it out is wha the really became known for. He sacrificed sleep along with many other things just to get his dreams off the ground.
I never found anything really confusing in the story as far as reading it goes but looking back I question why he made some decisions when he did. But he was a smart man so I'm sure there was some underlying reasons.
If I were able to ask him two questions they would be; "Did you ever think that it would grow to this?" and "What made keep grinding so much?". I was very impressed at his ability tokeep pushing forward and want to know how he was able to keep on.
I think his opinion of hard work was that in order to work hard you have to persevere and not give up. Thats what he did as he ran his businesses and was major part as to why he was so successful.
I can tell that Ray Kroc dedicated all of his efforts toward his path to success. I mean, the fact that he put in more than half of his income towards business ventures reveals how ambitious and confident that he possessed, which are good qualities that any entrepreneur should be glad to have. McDonald's is one of the greatest food establishments to have ever been founded, and it wouldn't be possible without Ray.
ReplyDeleteHi Emory! I think Ray sounds like an awesome, dedicated person and love how he never gave up. It sounds like he wasn't expecting McDonalds to turn into the huge world-known chain it is today, but I think thats why it was possible. I think if he was trying to get it huge and famous it never would have happened, he just had to work hard and it would happen. One critique for your post though is to explain things out better, not all of us read the book you did so I was pretty confused when reading some parts of your post. Great job though!
ReplyDeleteHi Emory! I had no idea he was in his fifties when he began McDonalds that is something I feel like is not as common. I liked your question about if he ever knew how big McDonalds would turn out to be. My guess would be that no one ever expects their company to do as insanely well as this one has. However, because he was so dedicated he could have had aspirations to get to this level.
ReplyDeleteI also read Ray Krocs book and I agree with everything that you wrote. I admired his personality and always wanted to achieve more. Constantly wanting to be successful, he paved the way for one of the biggest franchises in the united states. He struggled at the beginning but he was able to be successful in the end.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post because I did not read this book and was not planning to this semester. I cannot believe he was in his fifties when he created McDonalds! I agree that selling liquor illegally was definitely not his best move. Also, putting forward 60% off his company is unbelievable to me but that was necessary to keep his dream of entrepreneurship alive. Like Juliana had mentioned above, I admire his willingness to achieve more and live off of the small profit he had made.
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