13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

I read Ray Kroc’s Grinding it out, the making of McDonald’s. 1. What surprised you the most? What surprised me the most was how Ray Kroc, when he was in his 50's, managed to build one of the largest fast food chains in the world despite all the adversities he faced. Accomplishing this after spending 20 years selling paper cups and multimixers. You tend to think of entrepreneurship happening at an earlier age. 2. What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? I admire his self awareness, as well as the trust he had in his and his employees’ instincts. His capability to take risks, even when they turned out to be failures, was also remarkable. In addition to this, I admire the fact that Ray Kroc put a lot of effort in his business, he knew his strengths and he didn’t think of money as his priority. 3. What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? While reading the book, I noticed a couple of things I did not admire about Ray Kroc. First of all, his total commitment to his business left him with no private life to be found if not within the business itself. Also, I found some of the writing self-absorbed, written to praise the success he had 4. Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? During his life, Ray Kroc encountered several adversities, but he always found an innovative way to come out of them. In fact, he often relied on his ability and previous experience, like when he lost his job in Florida and he accepted a job as a pianist, from which he earned also extra tips thank to his brilliance. Also, he was often helped by his employees and co-workers when he encountered failures. However, his philosophy was not to worry for more than one thing at time, setting priorities and relaxing until he found a solution for that problem and could think of another one. 5. What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? While reading the book, I noticed how his flexibility played an important role in the development of the McDonald’s corporation. In fact, at first he wanted to open new restaurants all over the country to sell more of his multimixers, later he understood how successful the fast food chain could have been. So, he focused on improving the restaurants and, thanks to his flexibility, planned his work consequently. Also, he knew his strengths and emphasized them. Moreover, I noticed how Ray Kroc adapted the different McDonald’s restaurants to the needs of certain territories and communities, like when the corporation initially created the Filet-O-Fish for the Christians who couldn’t eat any meat in certain days of the year. 6. Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you The autobiography was very enjoyable to read, it was written with a flowing style and was simple to understand, even when talking about technical issues. However, I think the parts in which he talked about his employees and co-workers were a little confusing, even though I understand he had to mention them. Moreover, the book became a little less enjoyable towards the end, where he talked about his experience with the baseball team. 7. If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? If I were able to ask two questions to Ray Kroc, I would ask him what the most important key for his success was. Of course, his intuition played an important role, but I wonder what the importance of previous experience was and if without all those years of experience he would have had the same success. Also, I would ask him to what extent a business can be controlled by one person and how much power should be delegated and when. I find this question significant because at some point it’s necessary to delegate a certain amount of responsibilities to others and I would like to know how to interact and manage this situation. 8. What do you think the entrepreneur’s opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? As he stated multiple times in the book, Ray Kroc gave great importance to hard work and persistence. He was a very ambitious man and he aimed at reaching perfection and I think that’s why he was completely immersed in his job and had no other thoughts. I share the same importance Ray Kroc had regarding hard work, because I believe it’s one of the keys to success, but I also think that after working hard you shouldn’t forget to relax sometimes.