Assignment 13A

The entrepreneur I read about Ray Kroc, the fast-food tycoon that all but established McDonald’s as basically part of the American culture with how prominent and successful he was. Nowadays there is a McDonalds on almost every street corner in America. What surprised me the most was that he was not in fact the founder of McDonalds nor the idea of its burger, the McDonalds brothers were. As the story goes he snatched the idea out from under them and ran with it, technically conning the brothers out of any of the rights to the idea or business concept of franchising it. I know that in the world of business it is better to be a shark than a minnow but this is the fact that I least admire about Ray Kroc, his lack of loyalty and his shady actions. He is not a person with integrity or morals but just does anything and everything for money and to be rich. I do admire his ambition and his determination to succeed and grow no matter his circumstance. I also admire the way in which he would not take no for an answer, even as a regular salesman – always looking for the next best thing like a true entrepreneur. Ray Kroc encountered adversity and failure in the beginning of his career but like I previously mentioned he got back up on his feet and persevered. These are qualities that every entrepreneur must have to be able to succeed.

The competencies that the entrepreneur exhibited were ambition, determination, and an open and creative mind. If I was able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur it would be if he had any guilt about the lives he had technically ruined along the way and what, if anything, he would have done differently? I believe that Kroc’s opinion of hard work was that some hard work is necessary but if you are having to put in too much hard work your either not smart enough or doing something wrong. In all honesty Kroc’s success was based on him being at the right place in the right time as much as it was because of the work and effort he put into it.