I chose to read Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc. I think what surprised me the most about the entrepreneur was that he was so old when he found his passion. I guess I never really thought about it or read anything about McDonald's but it's crazy to think he started out with his career so late in life. He turned a place that sold 15 cent hamburgers into a fast food restaurant that would essentially change the life of so many Americans and not many people can say they've done that. I admire most about Kroc is that he never gave up, he knew that he wanted to be an entrepreneur he just needed to wait for the right time for a product to come up with. After making a couple of questionable decisions within his career he knew it was time to go back to the basics and find something he wanted to do, lucky for him it kinda fell into his lap after that. I also admired that he was a good person, he always wanted to be fair in selling his products. The thing I admired the least were his bad decisions before he found the McDonald brothers, he was working at a bar that was selling illegal liquor, and then after that he started selling bad real estate, he definitely made a couple questionable decisions with that. Kroc did experience failure with his Hula Burger he enjoyed the burgers in the comfort of his own home but the public was quick to reject them. He took his failure and learned from it like any good entrepreneur would do.
Kroc never wanted to give up the sales part of him, he started out selling paper cups to whoever needed them from restaurants, soda shops and more. Kroc was a extremely honest man and I believe that's one of the reasons he was in business for so long people like doing business with honest people. I was a little confused when I started reading because I thought he came up with McDonald's but he just added onto the original McDonald's store. If I could ask him questions I would ask after so many years of McDonald's being around did you ever picture it being this big? I mean I guarantee this isn't a town in the USA without a McDonald's, how does that make you feel? My second question would be do you wish you could've found out about McDonald's earlier? If so what would you do differently? I think Kroc's opinion of hard work is to simply never give up, if you have an idea and can make money off of it, go for it, don't give up. If you're working for a bad real estate company, or even for a bar who is selling liquor illegally never give up when you have to start back over, it will be worth it. I do share that opinion, I believe hard work can get you anywhere in life!
Hello Jaycie,
ReplyDeleteI thought it was very interesting that you discovered the entrepreneur to be old when he found his passion. This concept, gives me hope for myself because there are days where I feel like I am not good at anything. Having the reassuring idea that an individual can grow their passions over time gives me motivation to stay on top of my responsibilities. I think your questions for Kroc are great. I am also curious about how he feels regarding having McDonalds all over the world. For future assignments, I suggest having headings so that it is easier for your readers to follow along. Other than this, you wrote a great post!
Hello Jaycie,
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting that Ray Kroc found his passion as an entrepreneur at an old age. I know someone who is currently starting a business and he is old too. However, he has always had a passion to start a business just like Kroc. I have always had a passion to start my own business, but I guess having a passion is only a part of being an entrepreneur.
Hey Jaycie,
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely interesting that Ray started at such an old age. This just goes to show that it is never too late to start a venture and become rich. I like that Ray had failed several times before in his career and that led to him being successful with McDonald's. This connects to one of our earlier assignments talking about failure. He most likely learned from his previous failures and made them stepping stones to finding success rather than being deterred by them.
Hello Jaycie,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post and found it interesting that Kroc started off at an older age. I also found it interesting that he made some poor decisions in his past. I wonder if those bad decisions translated at all to the values of McDonalds. I also like your questions! I think it is very good to ask if he would want to discover McDonalds earlier. It would let you know if he values the experience and patience he had to learn.
Hey Jaycie,
ReplyDeleteI think that this book is a very good example for all entrepreneurs, and Ray Kroc's experiences were key in making McDonalds as successful as it is today. The various businesses he was involved in before McDonalds certainly played a big part in his ideology of being fair, hardworking, and honest. It isn't really the type of word we would associate with McDonalds today as the massive corporation, but at the heart of the business some aspect of those traits still exist. I'd probably attribute this to his time dealing in businesses that were unfair, dishonest, and not hardworking more than his time with businesses that adopted the better counterparts.