Assignment 13 - Reading Reflection No. 1
1) You read about an entrepreneur:
What surprised you the most?
What surprised me the most was learning that Ray Kroc did not start McDonald’s. The McDonald brothers are the people who founded and established the first McDonald’s. Kroc was the person who helped them to expand into the fast food giant they are today.
What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
What I most admire about Ray Kroc is his work ethic. He was in his fifties when he began pursuing McDonald’s. People are typically planning out their retirement at that age, but Kroc was merely getting started. He saw an opportunity and took it. Additionally, he showed strong work ethic in his other business ventures such as milkshake mixers and paper cup sales. He worked incredibly hard in order to achieve his goals.
What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
Kroc fell in love with a married woman during his own marriage of almost 40 years. He proposed to the woman, who he called Joni, that they both get divorced from their partners and marry each other. What I least admired was the plan he thought up. It seems to lack loyalty to his wife and respect for the idea of marriage.
Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
Kroc did face adversity. While working with a paper cup company his pay was cut. He let his emotions get the best of him and ended up arguing with his boss and quit his job. He and his family needed this income, and his job search was going nowhere. Within days he was back in his bosses office to try and get his job back. After negotiating, not only was he able to get his old job back, but at the pay he was receiving before it was cut.
2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?
The competencies that Kroc displayed were successful opportunity identification and tenacity. He was fantastic at identifying opportunities. Whenever one crossed his path he immediately acted upon it. He was able identify the opportunity in expanding McDonald’s and grew it into the very successful chain that it is today. He was also very tenacious (as the title “Grinding It Out” would imply). He displayed incredible work ethic and unparalleled drive throughout the book. If he wanted something, then he did whatever it took to get it.
3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
One part of the reading that confused me a bit was a section in the beginning of the book describing the french fry cooking process for McDonald’s. The book said that part of what set McDonald’s fries apart from other chains was that it didn’t re-use oil that had been previously used to cook other food. This caught me off guard, and had me thinking for a bit. I did not know that re-using oil was a common practice in certain fast food chains, even if it is not supposed to happen. I would not have thought that re-using the oil would affect the quality of the fries so drastically.
4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
1.”How were you able to handle the stress of the risks you took?”. I would ask this because Kroc took tremendous risk in his pursuit of growing McDonald’s. His stress management skills were likely incredible, and applying his techniques in my everyday life would help me to cope with daily stresses more effectively.
2.”How do you go about identifying opportunities?”. I would ask this question because throughout the book Kroc was able to effectively identify opportunities. That, coupled with his strong work ethic, was largely the reason he did so well. I would like to learn how to better identify opportunities from someone who has proven to be very good at it.
5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
From reading the book, I can assume that Kroc was not afraid of hard work. In fact, he enjoyed working hard. In the book he referenced the old saying “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” and said that for him work was play. He derived his happiness from working. I do not share the same opinion, but a similar one. I enjoy seeing the results of my hard work, but the work itself does not bring me joy and make me fulfilled as it does for Kroc.
1) You read about an entrepreneur:
What surprised you the most?
What surprised me the most was learning that Ray Kroc did not start McDonald’s. The McDonald brothers are the people who founded and established the first McDonald’s. Kroc was the person who helped them to expand into the fast food giant they are today.
What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
What I most admire about Ray Kroc is his work ethic. He was in his fifties when he began pursuing McDonald’s. People are typically planning out their retirement at that age, but Kroc was merely getting started. He saw an opportunity and took it. Additionally, he showed strong work ethic in his other business ventures such as milkshake mixers and paper cup sales. He worked incredibly hard in order to achieve his goals.
What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
Kroc fell in love with a married woman during his own marriage of almost 40 years. He proposed to the woman, who he called Joni, that they both get divorced from their partners and marry each other. What I least admired was the plan he thought up. It seems to lack loyalty to his wife and respect for the idea of marriage.
Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
Kroc did face adversity. While working with a paper cup company his pay was cut. He let his emotions get the best of him and ended up arguing with his boss and quit his job. He and his family needed this income, and his job search was going nowhere. Within days he was back in his bosses office to try and get his job back. After negotiating, not only was he able to get his old job back, but at the pay he was receiving before it was cut.
2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?
The competencies that Kroc displayed were successful opportunity identification and tenacity. He was fantastic at identifying opportunities. Whenever one crossed his path he immediately acted upon it. He was able identify the opportunity in expanding McDonald’s and grew it into the very successful chain that it is today. He was also very tenacious (as the title “Grinding It Out” would imply). He displayed incredible work ethic and unparalleled drive throughout the book. If he wanted something, then he did whatever it took to get it.
3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
One part of the reading that confused me a bit was a section in the beginning of the book describing the french fry cooking process for McDonald’s. The book said that part of what set McDonald’s fries apart from other chains was that it didn’t re-use oil that had been previously used to cook other food. This caught me off guard, and had me thinking for a bit. I did not know that re-using oil was a common practice in certain fast food chains, even if it is not supposed to happen. I would not have thought that re-using the oil would affect the quality of the fries so drastically.
4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
1.”How were you able to handle the stress of the risks you took?”. I would ask this because Kroc took tremendous risk in his pursuit of growing McDonald’s. His stress management skills were likely incredible, and applying his techniques in my everyday life would help me to cope with daily stresses more effectively.
2.”How do you go about identifying opportunities?”. I would ask this question because throughout the book Kroc was able to effectively identify opportunities. That, coupled with his strong work ethic, was largely the reason he did so well. I would like to learn how to better identify opportunities from someone who has proven to be very good at it.
5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
From reading the book, I can assume that Kroc was not afraid of hard work. In fact, he enjoyed working hard. In the book he referenced the old saying “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” and said that for him work was play. He derived his happiness from working. I do not share the same opinion, but a similar one. I enjoy seeing the results of my hard work, but the work itself does not bring me joy and make me fulfilled as it does for Kroc.
From reading your reflection of your book it made me realize how similar most of these entrepreneurs are. I read the book Steve Jobs and I was shocked at some of the things he did in his person life. This also shone a light on how they are just like us and how they make mistakes. The most important take-away from this reading is that he never gave up on trying to pursue his dreams. Another lesson to be learned from this reflection is that you are never too old to make a difference. One thing that shocked me in my book was that Steve Jobs actually was no good at technology but, instead, expanding the business idea by going out and trying to sell and bring in customers. They both took initiative and that's all we need to become successful in our own pursuit.
ReplyDeleteI read this book too and came to a lot of the same conclusions you did too. The way he handled his first marriage was also that thing that picked for the item I least admired. It was amazing to me how he was able to move from opportunity to opportunity with what seemed in the book as not a care in the world.
ReplyDeleteHey Alexander,
ReplyDeleteRay Kroc is someone that I have rarely heard of and barely had any information on before this. I had no idea of his affiliation with the expansion of the McDonalds chain. After reading your post I realized how interesting he really is. As a student in the ENT3003 class, what is one piece of advice you would take from him?
Great job!