Reading Reflection #3

GRINDING IT OUT

The Making of McDonald’s

Ray Kroc was a man of the people. He loved to be around people and he loved working with people. At a young age his jobs involved either entertaining people with his music, giving lessons, on a radio show, or in sales. Eventually he transitioned over to sales and everywhere he went he became one of the top salesmen. He had a unique ability to persuade people into his way of thinking and he honed those skills and enjoyed it. What I most admired was his passion for sales. I have been in the sales industry for a couple years now and although I enjoy it, mainly because of the money and freedom, it is not a passion of mine like it was for Mr. Kroc. He enjoyed going into work every day to sell and he had fun every day. In fact, he managed to start his own sales company selling multi-mixers to restaurants all around the U.S. and that company was what paid his salary and kept him afloat during the beginning rough years of McDonald's franchise. One reason I believe he enjoyed sales so much was because he always put the customer first. He would never sell a product to someone that did not need it or if it would cause them a financial burden. He was always looking out for his customers and in that way, he was always able to get a loyal customer base and enjoy his job. 

One area I think he could have improved in was having a more balanced lifestyle. One could say he was a workaholic, at one point he worked 2 jobs and was home for only 6 hours of the day enough to sleep and get dressed and ready for the second job. I think this lack of balance eventually lead to his divorce. However, his work ethic was amazing and most of his success came due to his vision and work ethic, so I am not exactly sure if a more balanced lifestyle would have suited him. 

Mr. Kroc encountered much failure and adversity throughout his life. He had many business ventures that either did not pan out or where the luck just ran out. One example was a real estate venture he pursued in Miami, FL. It was going great until the company he was working for was shut down and he never received his last paycheck. This was tough for him and his family, but they decided to go back home to Chicago and he started selling paper cups full time. He was always looking ahead and trying to find the next best thing. His work ethic would not allow him to feel sorry for himself or to stop trying. I believe one of the skills that allowed him to succeed and overcome adversity was the ability to not worry. He developed a meditation technique that allowed him to forget the stresses of his day to day and be able to sleep and relax when it was time to relax.

One of the competencies Mr. Kroc possessed, which I think is very valuable as an entrepreneur, was his ability to recognize talent and potential in others. He has said repeatedly in his book that he did not know what he would have done or where McDonald's would be without the key executives and secretaries, he was able to hire in the beginning years. He had great intuition to know when someone had potential and when they didn’t, and that applied to many other things like where to build new stores, what foods to add to the menu, etc.

One part of the reading that was confusing was why he did not part ways with his CEO years before. Harry Sonneborn was his first CEO and was very instrumental in the success of McDonald's, but as the company grew and the market and economy changed it was clear Mr. Kroc’s and his ideas where not in sync. He let things slide for a while until eventually they could not agree on anything, but it caused contention in the company and he lost some executives and risked losing some more that were not happy with how Sonneborn ran things.

One of the questions I would ask Mr. Kroc is, what were some of his techniques to close a sale? Like I said earlier he was a great salesman and I am always interested in learning different sales techniques He was able to close many sales in his day and I’d love to get some ideas on how those sales were closed. The other would be, what kept him so motivated? It seemed like since he was young, he had this incredible drive and that was what powered his work ethic. I find myself lacking motivation sometimes and I’d love to know what kept him going all those years. Especially what kept him grinding till he was old because he didn’t start McDonald's Corporations till, he was 52 years old.

I think Mr. Kroc’s opinion of hard work is that it is vital to your success. He has said that when you believe in something you have to be in it to the ends of your toes. When he began a new venture he believed in, he would go all in, as in, if he was not working, he was thinking of work 24 hours out of the day. Toward the end of his life he said he considered taking it easy with McDonald's operations and taking it easy meant only thinking about it and working 18 hours of the day instead of 24. To have the success Mr. Kroc had I believe it is very important to be all in like he was and work nonstop. With that said, I’d like to have a little more balance in my life but that doesn’t mean I won’t have success, maybe just not to the level he enjoyed.