Reading Reflection 1

For my first reading reflection, I read Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc. 

1a) What surprised you the most?

I was surprised at his age when he started working for McDonald's. Ray was 52 years old when he first began working for McDonald's. Many entrepreneurs start out quite young, but Ray already had an established life and many jobs before this venture.  He was married and made a living by being a great salesman selling paper cups and milkshake mixers. The success he received at an older age shows that entrepreneurship can strike at any age, even if the person already has an established life.

1b) What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
I admired Ray's honesty the most. He was very blunt, and would clearly share his opinion of an idea he disapproved of. Sometimes, his opinion made him appear as a stubborn, subordinate person, but I think his blunt honesty saved time on potential bad ideas. Many times, people try to be too polite about disagreements, which only wastes time. He may have hurt some feelings with his honesty, but that only increased his credibility and saved him time that could be put to use on developing worthwhile ideas.

1c) What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
I least admired his spontaneity. Ray struck me as a person with lots of energy and zeal, which led to many spontaneous ideas. While this can be great occasionally, he sometimes didn't think through his ideas completely, which led to large disagreements with other executives. Spontaneous decisions work well for low-stake situations, such as deciding to get cookies at midnight, not for big decisions affecting a company as large and established as McDonald's.

1d) Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
Ray encountered failure at least twice in his personal life. He was married three times and divorced twice. Although not directly affecting his business, I think his quick marriages caused some underlying issues that indirectly affected his work ethic and goals. He didn't do much to correct the marriage. Sometimes he would talk with his wife, while other times he didn't inform her of his plans until the last minute. He used divorce as a solution to solve his marriage problems, mainly because he developed feelings for someone else, or the marriage wasn't supporting his professional goals.

Ray experienced adversity with one of the executives, Harry Sonneborn. Harry became the president and chief executive of McDonald's, and he and Ray disagreed on virtually every topic. The disagreements became so bad that the executive office had an unofficial divide of "Team Harry" and "Team Ray" workers. Ray didn't have a solution to this problem either. Harry and Ray would argue about the current topic and sometimes come to an agreement. Harry ended up resigning, due to some health problems and further disagreements about the direction of the company. Both men were very stubborn and rarely conceded.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?
The entrepreneur understood relationships with customers very well. Before McDonald's, he sold paper cups. He quickly became the best salesman in his company, and a large part of his success was attributed to developing a good relationship with customers. He even pointed out in his book that he was going to beat out a competitor selling paper cups to a particular business because of his relationship with customers. This further benefited him when working with McDonald's because he always found ways to take care of the customer, rather than solely focusing on the transaction.

Another competency Ray exhibited was sticking to his word. He was extremely dedicated to doing a good job, whether that involved selling cups or creating a new food item. He never backed down on his word. Specifically, he quit his job as a salesman because he didn't feel as if his compensation was adequate, despite his position as the best salesman in the company. Ray bluntly told his boss he was going to quit and said he refused to come back until his salary was fixed. He stuck by his word, and a few days later, he was called into the office for a plan to receive a better salary.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
One part of the reading that was confusing to me was about the McDonald's brothers. When Ray began working for them in the early stages of the company, both parties agreed that Ray must explicitly state his plans in writing, and the brothers had to approve it. Multiple times in the book, Ray explained how the brothers would approve plans over the phone, but would never put the plans into writing. I believe this was part of a ploy for the brothers to keep control over McDonald's without explicitly telling Ray, but nonetheless, this part confused me.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
"Why doesn't McDonald's have a dedicated healthy section on their menu?"
I would ask this question because, like many fast food chains, McDonald's may begin to financially suffer from the push for healthier foods. Ray wasn't alive when the push for healthy foods became extremely popular, but I would still be curious to hear his opinion.

"How did you not let the money get to your head?"
I would ask this question because as I was reading, I noticed that Ray's personality did not change from when he was struggling to pay the bills while selling paper cups, to when he was making millions of dollars at McDonald's. He seemed like the same honest, blunt man who genuinely cared about his customers. So many people change once they succumb to a large sum of money, and more often than not, that change is negative. I think Ray is one of the few entrepreneurs who didn't become greedy once he became wealthy, and it'd be interesting to see his perspective on this topic.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? 
I think Ray greatly admired hard work. He explained in his book how intelligence doesn't matter for running a McDonald's franchise, as long as the owner is a hard worker and a good person who is dedicated to the job. He even refused to donate to colleges unless they added a trade school because he didn't deem postsecondary education necessary for becoming successful. After all, he never went to college. I think Ray is a firm believer in hard work, and I also share that opinion. Hard work is very important, and a great skill that must be developed to make a living. Unless success was handed to a person since birth, everyone must work hard to become successful. Whether that is through going to trade school, attending college, or working in the family business, hard work is an important skill to develop that can lead to great rewards.