13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

For this assignment, I chose to read Grinding it Out by Ray Kroc.

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

 The thing about this book that surprised me the most was discovering that Ray Kroc bought McDonalds from the McDonalds brothers instead of starting the franchise himself. The thing about Ray Kroc that I admired the most was his passion to stick to his original plan. It would have been easy for Ray to turn McDonalds into a regular burger joint, but he chose to make McDonalds different and it rally paid off for him. I did not admire his strict code of conduct in his franchise owner’s personal life, I believe he should have stuck with company policy and allowed them to be themselves. If so, what did they do about it? Ray Kroc did encounter adversity and failure through his paper cup and milkshake business. Instead of quitting, he joined the McDonalds brothers on an idea that he believed would work. He also noticed the McDonald brothers would not allow him to conduct business the way he wanted, so he bought the franchise and did things his way. 

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

I noticed that Ray Kroc that the ability to stick to his guns and see his idea through. It would have been easy for Ray to follow the trend of traditional burger joints of the time, but he wanted to follow his idea until the end, and that is what made him so successful.

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

I was confused as to why the McDonald brothers would sell away their company when they noticed how much the company was growing and they had majority control. Maybe they believed that Ray would ruin the business, but I am not sure.

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

The first question I would ask Ray would be how he knew that there would be a market demand for a burger joint that is family friendly/ There no places at the time, so how could he have foreseen this opportunity in the market. The second question I would ask Ray would be why he demanded his brand to be so unified throughout? It would have been easy to mold the California branches to fit the psychographic of California customers as well as customers in the Midwest, so why not appeal to the customers of the area?

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

I believe Ray had a very strong desire to work hard. As a military man, Ray understood the importance of hard work, and knew his business would not succeed without it. I believe I too have a similar opinion of hard work.