Reading Reflection No. 3

Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc

1. Something that surprised me about Ray Kroc was that he had an "all or nothing" mentality that caused him to have less than great personal relationships. I admired that he always carried his humble beginnings with him. I did not admire the time in his life in which he sold bad real estate to people. Luckily, he left that profession to go back to selling paper cups honestly. He experienced failure during that time of selling bad real estate. He also experienced failure working as a piano player at a bar that sold illegal liquor. He overcame these mistakes and went back to selling paper cups.

2. Ray Kroc was an extremely good salesman. When selling paper cups, he knew exactly how to get them to restaurants, soda shops, etc. He also was good with keeping connections with them. He was an honest salesman, and never sold a cup to someone who didn't need one. He also was very good at spotting opportunities and taking advantage. When he stumbled upon the invention of the milkshake mixer, he took it to the McDonald's brothers and wound up changing America forever.

3. I was confused upon starting this book because I did not even know who Ray Kroc was! I was under the impression that the McDonald's brothers were the only people involved... I guess I was kind of living under a rock!

4. The first question that I would ask Ray Kroc could be taken as a rude question. I would like to ask him if he regrets the success of McDonald's now that we know how terrible it is for our health. McDonald's contributes to so much of the world's obesity. I wonder if he would have ever guessed that it would result in that. My next question would be if he would do anything differently, what would it be?

5. I think that Ray Kroc's opinion of hard work is doing anything and everything you can to be successful while being HONEST. Honesty was very important to Kroc and I respect that about him. I wish that he was around today so that I could hear his opinions about the current election and the way McDonald's is run today. I wonder if he would approve of what is going on or what he would have to say about everything.