27A- Reading Reflection No.3

For my Reading Reflection No.3, I chose “Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s” by Ray Kroc. In this 1977 memoir by Ray Kroc, the businessman behind the world-famous hamburger chain, discusses the story of his career, which wasn’t one of instant success. Kroc discusses the story of his career, which wasn’t one of instant success. Instead, Kroc worked most of his career as a salesman, first selling one product after another. It wasn’t until late in his career, at the age of 52, that he met the McDonald’s brother and turned their small fast food operation into an international success. In the process, Kroc changed everything about the American restaurant industry. Harvard Business School has called him “the service sector’s equivalent to Henry Ford.”

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

·       What surprised you the most?

• The lack of initial success these entrepreneurs faced. The ability for these men to battle adversity and failure throughout their professional career proves that you only have to be right once, something I learned in a book by the great venture capitalist and businessman, Mark Cuban. The many failures early in the professional career of these two “McDonald’s Brothers” proves that battling the negative and pursuing a positive dream leads to eventual success.

·       What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

• The hard-working mindset of these entrepreneurs is what I admire most. Their ability to perform detailed and specific hard work, while maintaining the integrity and quality of their brand proves that McDonald’s cares dearly about their employees, shareholders, customers and the community.

·       What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

• There was nothing that I disliked or did not admire about either of these two entrepreneurs. It was an absolute joy to read this book and would recommend it to any of my friends or family.

·       Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

·       Kroc’s success depended on keen business sense, stress management, and thrift: he was careful not to be extravagant with the company’s money, and he practiced techniques to manage stress when overwhelmed with the complications of running an ever-expanding company. His commitment to franchising stores helped scale the McDonald’s chain at a steady pace while encouraging entrepreneurship and ingenuity.

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

·      These two entrepreneurs demonstrated the ability to overcome adversity, learn from failure, maintain a quality image in the community, retain the integrity of the McDonald’s name, provide affordable food for many people worldwide.

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

·      There was no significant point in the reading where I became puzzled or confused with what I was reading, I simply continued to look forward to the next page of this book in anticipation of finding out what it takes to run a company such as McDonalds.

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

·      “When things get tougher than you could have expected, where do you look for advice?”

·      “During the journey, was there a point where you thought about giving up? If there was one particularly important time where you thought about quitting, did it lead to an eventual success?

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

·      I believe both of the McDonald’s brothers believe heavily in the art of hard work. I believe these two men would dedicate a majority of their personal business successes to the many hours of hard work and dedication devoted to their business venture.