27A Reading Reflection No. 3

For this reading reflection assignment, I read the book, “Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s.”  I found this book very interesting and that the hardship Ray Kroc endured to become the successful businessman he was molded him into the entrepreneur he is.  

1.    What surprised me the most was that McDonald’s was not expanded by the McDonald brothers, rather an outside source – in this case Ray Kroc – pushed for the restaurant to become a franchise.  I admired most about Ray Kroc his persistence in the food industry and how he continued to try and improve the market.  I least admired the fact that Ray Kroc began to make decisions regarding the business that the McDonald brothers did not want him to make. He held the brothers to the contract they signed and continued to expand the franchise for profit rather than for quality.  Ray Kroc experienced a lot of hardship, specifically when he was trying to sell cups to fast food joints.  Selling these cups was not producing enough money for him to live off of, so he took up several jobs at once to sustain his living. 

2.    Ray Kroc exhibited tenacity that gave him the upper hand and desire to be successful.  When he first opened a new McDonald’s and the fries were not like the original ones he tasted at the brothers’ store, he stopped everything else to focus on this one aspect to make sure the fries were perfect.  This showed that Kroc was willing to put forth the effort to be successful and that he truly had the passion to see this restaurant excel.  

3.    The book was fairly straight forward so I was not confused by much of the reading at all. 

4.    If I could ask Ray Kroc two questions, they would be: 1) How did you feel after pushing the franchise to be profit driven instead of what the McDonald brothers wanted in their original store?  2) If you could go back and do anything different, what would it be?  I would ask the first question because I am a sympathetic person and going against the desires of others is difficult to me. I would ask the second question because everyone has ideas they realize they should have seized after the fact and I am curious as to what those ideas are for Kroc. 

5.    I believe Ray Kroc’s idea of hard work is continually giving maximum effort and to look towards the desirable outcome whenever things get difficult.  I believe we share a similar outlook on hard work, as I feel you always need to have your end goal in mind as you work hard during the middle phase to achieve that goal.