13A - Reading Reflection No. 1

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

1.
- What surprised me the most about Ray Kroc was his unbelievable work ethic. From the time he was young he was always working. In the book he talks about how most people say "Work hard, play hard," but for him work was play. He sought out work in many different areas: real estate, music, sales, and eventually franchising. He always wanted to live comfortably and have more than enough money to live with him and his family.

- The thing I most admire about Ray Kroc was his tenacity. There are several stories he shares in his book in which the average person would've wanted to give up, but he didn't. I also admired how he was always taking leaps of faith. In one story he shared about his life, he talked about how he had heard business was great in Florida. He moved down for an entire winter in search of something different in Miami, because his paper cup sales dwindled in the winter. Although the move was relatively unsuccessful, at least he had still tried it, which is something most would not have done.

- There are a couple things I did not admire about Ray Kroc. He didn't seem very interested in the things he was selling or offering his customers, and he didn't seem too passionate about his products. He seemed more interested in the business and selling aspects of his businesses. When he talked about his many jobs as a pianist, there weren't any times that made me feel like he even enjoyed playing the piano that much. Even when he first saw the McDonald's restaurant, he wasn't intrigued by the products themselves, he was intrigued by the sales of them. I guess he seems to me sort of money-hungry. Another thing I was not the most fond of was the fact that he fought over control so much with the McDonald's brothers, even though they were the ones that founded the first restaurant.

- In his book, Ray Kroc did share his encounters with adversity and failure. When he was in the business of selling paper cups, his sales would go down in winter because people didn't want to buy as many in winter. One winter, he went to Miami in search of work. He failed as a real estate agent, but then moved on to play the piano in a band. He ended up making a decent amount of money, but moved back to Chicago shortly before winter was over after being arrested along with everyone in the band because some violated the prohibition law.

2. Ray Kroc had many competencies as an entrepreneur, one being the fact that he was even able to see the huge potential of that first McDonald's restaurant. The McDonald's brothers, who were the first owners of the company, didn't really want to add to the business because they didn't really care much to have more and more responsibility. Ray Kroc took this opportunity and it turned him into a millionaire. Another competency he had was that he took risks. He took a risk by franchising these restaurants, and it ended up being a huge win for himself. In my opinion, Ray Kroc had just about every quality that a great entrepreneur would have.

3. What was confusing to me in this book is his passion of selling. Many people become salesmen because they want to make a lot of money, and they want to find new ways to make more sales in order to make even more money. However, it seemed that Ray Kroc wasn't just in it for the money, he actually found business fun. You can tell by the way he talks in his book that he was passionate about selling. When he was in the paper cup business, he wanted to come up with more ideas about how to sell paper cups because he enjoyed it, not necessarily because he wanted to make more money. Not many people have this passion for business like he did. Although somewhat confusing, this passion for selling is what made him into such a great entrepreneur.

4. If I was able to ask Ray Kroc questions, the first would be: What motivation did you have to take all of those risks that you took? I would ask this because I want to know if it was the money that was the motivation, or the thrill of success, or possibly something else. Another question I would ask would be: What made you want to seek out even more opportunities even when you were in a comfortable financial and business situation? I would want to ask this because it seems that there are many times in his book in which he was living comfortably and didn't necessarily need to look for other work or business opportunities. I'm curious to know what exactly he what need he wanted to satisfy by doing this.

5. I think that Ray Kroc would have a very similar opinion about hard work to mine. I think that he would say that hard work is all about putting in all of your effort into your work. Time and time again in his book, it seemed that his work was so interesting to him and that he put in so much effort, not just the bare minimum. Ray Kroc didn't just want to get the job done, he wanted to get the job done well. Another thing I think he would say about hard work is that you have to innovate in order to make your work more efficient. He was always working on more ideas about how to sell his products, whatever they were at the time. In fact, in his paper cup business, he made so many sales that the business had to hire a new secretary. Even after this he probably could have kept selling the same about he had been selling, but he still wanted to boost his sales and think of new ideas to sell more. I think that Ray Kroc would say that hard work is important for success. He would say that you can't get far without it. I would agree with this, because hard work is more often rewarded.