Assignment 13A- Reading Reflection No. 1

I read Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc. Something that surprised me the most while reading this book was that the McDonald brothers let Ray take over as much as he did and as quickly as he did it. If I had started a company like McDonald's, I do not think I would let someone take over almost the entire company. What I admired about Ray is that he kept pushing and going no matter what obstacle was thrown in his way. He did not let anything get him down. Although, I did not like how controlling Ray was at the beginning of his journey with McDonald. He was very pushy with all of the projects going on within McDonald's and wanted to have his way in all of it, even over the McDonald brothers. Ray did encounter a lot of adversity and failure. When he did encounter these obstacles, he pushed through and worked very hard until he was able to overcome them. Some of his failures affected him for months and even years, yet he did not stop working to fight them. Ray Kroc exhibited a lot of competencies. Two that stand out the most to me are his willingness to do whatever it takes to get something done and his ambition to work with others. Ray was always willing to work long hours with just a few hours of sleep each night in order to make a living and sell his products. In the book, Ray sells paper cups and Multimixers until he finally begins his journey with McDonald's. Along the way, Ray meets so many people whom he ends up hiring at McDonald's once it begins to boom. One part of the reading that confused me is when Ray and his first wife Ethel Fleming begin having marital issues. Ray never fully describes what happens to the marriage, just that they got divorced, subtly. If I could ask Ray Kroc two questions they would be “What is your biggest takeaway from your time with McDonald's?” and “Do you have any advice on what to do when you face obstacles?”. I would ask the first question because if I wore to become an entrepreneur, I would want to know what he valued most about being as successful as he was. I would ask the second question to know how someone who was so successful was able to face all the obstacles that were thrown at them. I think that Rays opinion of hard work is doing whatever needs to be done to be successful and get things done, no matter how many hours and how much effort you have to put into it. I do think we share this opinion of what hard work is. For example, I do whatever it takes to get good grades on tests no matter how many hours I have to sit at the library until I understand it. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to everyone to read (the movie is on amazon and is amazing as well)!!!