Ray Kroc and McDonald's
I just finished grinding it out, The Making of McDonald’s by Ray Kroc after seeing the movie The Founder. My first suggestion would be to read this book also and not just watch the video as it gives you a much better perspective, story, and lessons from the one and only Ray Kroc.
Ray Kroc was a salesman grinding it out for his whole life. He did not get involved in the McDonald’s business until he was 55 years old and it wasn’t easy at all for many years after that. But the grinding out for so many decades is what made him turn this simple burger joint into one of the great empires in history, still to this day.
As I mentioned in my last video “Why we all need to be salespeople”, majority of the most successful people of all time have critically learned sales skills right before they had their massive success. They could have been very successful already but the leap to extraordinary results and success was when they learned sales skills.
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The Amazing Story of Ray Kroc
Ray Kroc was grinding it out basically his whole life. Up until he got involved with McDonald’s he was always busy working as an ordinary salesman, never seeing much of his family and not really making any much money to live a modern lifestyle. He was involved with selling Dixie cups and then Multi-Mixers when he laid eyes on the McDonald’s brother and there restaurant. He was looking to sell them his Multi-Mixers but eventually had bigger plans as he saw something nobody else could predict.
It was his big break to make something massive in business. He didn’t just see one business he could work in but a prototype of something he could reproduce again and again in cities and towns all around the nation. This was not just a lucky break that he came across but was all because of the traits a true salesman and the skills that come with it. Self-Discipline and persistence is the first to recognize here in what lessons Ray taught us all with building McDonald’s and how sales skills give you much more than what we think.
Kroc knew how to create opportunities for himself. After pitching to the McDonald’s brothers for nationwide expansion of their restaurants while still selling milkshake makers, the brothers asked who would manage their franchising division. Kroc replied “What about me?” The McDonald’s brothers didn’t have a big interest to grow their business, so Ray took advantage of the opportunity. Ray Kroc said in an interview once “I was obsessed with the idea of making McDonald’s the biggest and the best. They were content with what they had. They didn’t want to take risks and meet greater demands.” Kroc achieved success by caring about his business more than anyone else.
“If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.” said Ray Kroc
Business should be about what you can provide for your customers, and how passionate you are about that. If the passion for your business and for your customers is not there, your business will die.
The Great Lessons Ray Kroc Left Behind
Ray left so many important lessons to businesses and our Freedom. Kroc said “If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.” Not taking any risks deprives you of the opportunity of being successful. Kroc took a small business model and began down a long expansion plan with absolutely no real idea of what the outcome would be. The fast-food industry was still very young, if non-existent, at the time when he embarked on his journey, but through perseverance, and his willingness to take risks and gamble on himself and his product, he came out on top as one of the most successful entrepreneurs.
Staying in the game, staying motivated, having persistence while things are not working as you would want is how this story has all unfolded. 55 years old until this man saw an opportunity that would change the way we look at businesses and would be his biggest break. Paving the concrete of standards and values businesses should hold, as well as us as people, to keep these same core values to achieve massive success. Ray Kroc’s persistence and love of serving others is why he was able to create one of the great empires in history.
After not making much money 30+ years, working day in and day out with nothing to show for it, he still had determination to serve his purpose. To add value to others in what they needed and serve them. To continue to fight for what he believed in and support himself, family and others. Having motivation everyday to wake up and fight for what needed to be done. Self discipline to continue while things are tough or not working.
He was relentless, would stop at nothing to achieve what he set out to do. He was not one to sit around for opportunity to fall in his lap but also knew success did not come immediately. It took a great deal of patience and effort to transform McDonald’s into what it is today. When the McDonalds brothers initially refused to sell to him, Kroc opened a McDonalds right across the street, striving to outbid his competitors, worked to improve the quality of his product and services, until finally they caved and the historic deal for $2.7 million was finalized.
The Story Continues
While nothing is perfect in this world, you should also shoot for perfection. Ray Kroc did everything he could to ensure that his customers received quality service every time they came to a McDonalds restaurant. As McDonalds continued to grow, and Kroc was able to open more locations across the country, he needed to develop a system that would ensure every single customer received the exact same quality food and service.
Teamwork makes the dream work. Teamwork is one of the most important elements to running a successful business, let alone a successful international empire.
“None of us is as good as all of us,” he once said, and in order for him to expand his small one-unit restaurant across the United States and then overseas, he needed the help of loyal and dedicated employees. Kroc insisted McDonalds’ workers be treated respectfully in every location, setting up rules for fair treatment and respect for all employees, and also ensuring his workers had a comfortable and fair environment to work in. Ray also knew that once your value has expired of what you can offer, you should no longer be in the position that you hold. He was very particular of who he hired and also let go close friends after years of service to the company if it did not make sense.
These are the values he instilled within the McDonald’s company values and his why the business prospered in every nook and cranny in the United States and now around the world. He was quite persistent in how each and every operator in each franchisee conducted the business because he knew if they followed the values there is no way they wouldn’t be successful. He was right. He valued customers so very much and insisted that they have the best service with the best product at a competitive value.
There is much more in the Video below. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comment section.
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