27A - Reading Reflection No. 3

27A - Reading Reflection No. 3

Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's, Ray Kroc

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

• I was surprised to find out that Ray did not invent McDonald's, rather he was just the McDonald brothers first business partner and he helped to propel the restaurant to what we know it as today.
• Ray Kroc has many admirable qualities but the one that stuck out to me the most was his ambition. He started off as a paper cup salesmen and progressed through many different jobs just his ambition and desire to be successful are what ultimately made him successful.
• While Ray did have amazing ambition in life this was sometimes a negative. A few of his business ventures led him down paths that might nigh have always been the most ethical, however, he did realize this and made the necessary changes to eventually get back on the right path. 
• When Ray switched over from selling paper cups for one company to selling milkshake mixers for another company the paper cup company became upset. They took him to court and tried to say that since he was still under contract with them that he could not self milkshake mixers. This argument was held true and Ray was required to pay 60% of his earnings from selling milkshake mixers back to the paper cup company. This was tough because he was only living off of 40% of his income but he never gave up during this time period and his life turned out pretty darn good despite this setback. 

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

• Ray's ability to sell is what ultimately made him successful. This is something that he learned early on in his life and mastered over time. Being a good sales men really does help as an entrepreneur assuming you have a good product to back it up and Ray did with the excellent food and fast service at McDonald's.  

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

• The fact that Ray Kroc did not invent McDonald's or anything surround the original location was a bit confusing to me. Eventually his skill set is what helped the franchise succeed but I just found this a little odd and confusing cause it was not prototypical entrepreneurship.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

• What helped you to preserver through all of this difficult times? Because you sure did seem to face a lot of them. 
• What about the two McDonald brother did you see that could make their restaurant and business model very successful?
• I think that both of these questions would allow me to get good insight into the mind of Ray Kroc.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

• I think that Ray Kroc's opinion of hard work is that it is necessary in order to be successful and that you should not shy away from it. His whole life he worked incredibly hard and I believe that he would strongly encourage others to do the same. I share the same opinion myself.