The bastard’s guide to business: How to grow a company the Ray Kroc way
Ray Kroc may be the man who created arguably the western hemisphere's most recognisable symbol – but he wasn't always nice about it.
In new movie The Founder, Michael Keaton stars as McDonald's founder Kroc, telling the story of his unlikely rise from small-time milkshake mixer salesman to big bucks entrepreneur after he was dazzled by Mac and Dick McDonalds' "Speedee Service System".
It's a cautionary tale suggesting success in business comes at a cost – although Kroc's personal fortune was estimated at $500m by the time he died in 1984.
Want to do business the McDonald's way? Here are the rules of business, according to Ray Kroc:
1. On growing your business (or, er, vegetables)
"As long as you’re green, you’re growing. As soon as you’re ripe, you start to rot."
2. On seizing opportunities
"One man's famine makes another man's feast."
3. … and on making your own luck
"I have always believed that each man makes his own happiness and is responsible for his own problems… It follows, obviously, that a man must take advantage of any opportunity that comes along."
4. On dressing for success
"Look sharp and act sharp."
5. … and on building it
“The two most important requirements for major success are, first, being in the right place at the right time and second, doing something about it.”
6. On old-fashioned hard work
"Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get."
7. On coming up with new ideas
“Creativity is a highfalutin word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.”
8. On education
"While formal schooling is an important advantage, it is not a guarantee of success, nor is its absence a fatal handicap."
9. On the spoils of success
"All money means to me is a pride in accomplishment."
10. On teamwork
"None of us is as good as all of us."
11. On the rich-poor divide
"It's easy to have principles when you're rich. The important thing is to have principles when you're poor."