Reading Reflection



1.     After reading Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s, I was surprised to see the actions that Ray Kroc took in order to get McDonalds to the level it is today. I was also surprised to see how successful it ended up being. I grew up going to McDonalds every once in a while and everybody knows the restaurant chain so learning about how it got to be what it is today was very cool to read. Something that I admired about Ray Kroc was how driven and persistent he was. After being unsuccessful with his paper cups and milkshake maker, he still tried and looked for new opportunities. I least admire the way he handled the business with the McDonald brothers. He was a good entrepreneur but not a good person. Ray Kroc encountered many adversities and failures in his past ideas, but when every one was unsuccessful he kept trying. After Kroc created his multimixers he tried to get his paper cup company to sell them but they wouldn’t. His biggest adversity was the paper cup company taking a percentage of the multimixers income because he was still under contract.  When he came across the McDonald brothers he knew that they had a unique thing going so he jumped all over it and turned it into a massive chain.
2.     Ray Kroc exhibits incredible persistence and is very good at speaking to get his way. Even when the McDonald brothers kept telling him no about being a part of the business or making changes to the restaurant, he would keep trying to convince them until they said yes.
3.     There wasn’t really any part that confused me. It was very easy to follow and I understood what was going on throughout Kroc’s entrepreneurship journey.
4.     If I could ask him two questions I would want to know how he stayed positive when his other business ideas failed, and I would ask why he handled the McDonalds business with the brothers the way he did instead of giving them a fair cut of the company since it was their idea.
5.     I think Ray Kroc’s opinion of hard work is to just keep trying even when things fail because eventually something is going to work. Although I do not agree with how he treated the McDonald brothers, I do think that the restaurant would not be what it is today without Kroc’s entrepreneurial mindset. He was persistent and had the people skills to gain investors and open restaurants across the country. He is a hard worker but I do not think he is ethical.  

Comments

  1. Luis GarridoOctober 15, 2018 at 11:53 AM

    Hi Brooke, it is really inspiring the level of determination Ray Kroc has in order to not give up after his first business idea. He is very driven and persistent which are two qualities to admire and try to learn from. He never took no for a simple answer instead he kept going with his entrepreneurship journey and it payed off well for him.

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  2. UnknownOctober 15, 2018 at 2:43 PM

    Brooke,
    I completely agree with you, Ray Kroc doesn't sound like the most moral person, and he may have been a bit underhanded in his dealing but no one can deny how business savvy and cunning he was. His persistence and skills are definitely what brought McDonald's into the state it is now. You did a really good job on your reflection of the book. I really understood the book as if I had read it myself.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Austin GalbraithOctober 15, 2018 at 10:27 PM

    Brooke,
    You did a great job on this reflection and I was very surprised to learn that the owner of McDonald's stole the idea and most of the money from the McDonald brothers. Kroc exhibits persistence because a few of his ideas failed at first and he still had the confidence and persistence to become a part of the McDonald's business and add ideas to make it successful.

    ReplyDelete

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