Persistence

Recently got hooked to a movie character Ray Kroc who always believed that it was sheer hard work and unstoppable urgency that lead to the formation of what we know today as the omnipresent McDonald’s.

Ray Kroc says “now, I know what you are thinking: how the heck does a 52-year-old, over the hill milkshake piece of equipment salesmen build a fast food empire with 1600 restaurants, in 50 states, in 5 overseas countries, with an annual income within the neighborhood of about 700 million dollars?

One Word: Persistence 

1). Nobody in the world can take the position of persistence. Ability won’t; nothing is more general than unsuccessful men with ability. Mastermind won’t; unrewarded Mastermind is practically a cliché. Learning won’t; the world is full of knowledgeable fools.

Persistence and determination alone are all-powerful.

Mesmerize audience with your “never say never” attitude that would further aid in attaining peace of mind. The Optimistic approach could culminate your strategies into the desired result thus paving the way to lead a step ahead!!

The best finding of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their thoughts of the brain. Ralph Waldo Emerson declared: “A man is what he imagines of all day along”.

It’s “THE POWER OF THE POSITIVE” BY DR. CLARENCE FLOYD NELSON

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2). “Marketing with persistence is a small but important part of a business. Building a business system is like building a car. You set all the parts in place but marketing is the fuel that will make the car run. Without fuel, the car is not going to move forward and all the parts are not going to be utilized. At the same time, if you have fuel, but don’t have a functional car, the fuel cannot serve any purpose.”

3). There is a factual story of how Ray Kroc, a struggling salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger business in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was overwhelmed by the brothers’ speedy technique of making the food and saw franchise potential. Kroc soon exercises himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a multi-billion dollar kingdom.

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So Movie ‘The Founder‘ about McDonalds’ History tells… Some very interesting things:

A) Ray Kroc, entered a business partnership with McDonalds in the year 1954, when he was 52 years himself, it is he who made the drive in a restaurant a global name. He was 52 and a milkshake machine seller. No entrepreneurial background.

B) He owes it to persistence. There were hundreds of other drives INS and even the brothers who ran the original McDonalds tried franchise model, but it didn’t work out for them. He persisted more than he was passionate.

An ex-Vice President of finances at Tastee-Freez, Sonneborn approached Ray Kroc with the concept of Kroc owning the land that McDonald outlets were to be built on and then leasing the land to the franchisee. Ray Kroc appointed Sonneborn McDonald’s President and Executive Officer in 1959.

Below mentioned is a brief observation/dialogue discussions between Sonneborn and Kroc before the real McDonald’s turnaround took place:

So as to Summarize – Mr. Harry J. Sonneborn, on auditing Ray Kroc’s Ledger at the start which reflected:

i) Miniscule Revenue Stream

ii) No Cash Reserves

iii) And in albatross of a contract that required him to go through a slow group of the process to enact changes, if they approved it all, which they never were. Land, Building aspect actually was in favor of franchisees in the beginning because franchisee used to find the land which he likes & used to get a lease of usually 20 years with a construction loan from Bank, raise up the building & off he goes. Franchisee, the operator only used to select the site, takes up the property. The training, the system, the operational know-how was used to be provided by Ray and the operator was responsible for the rest.

iv) Mr. Harry J. Sonneborn told Ray that you don’t seem to realize that in which business you are in. You are not in a Burger Business; you are in a Real Estate Business. You don’t build an empire of a 1.4% cut on 15 cent hand burger. You built it by owning the land upon which that burger is cooked. 

What you ought to be doing is buying up plots of land then turning around leasing said plots to franchisees that as a condition of their deal should be permitted to lease from you and you alone. This will provide two things:

• One, a Steady upfront Revenue Stream, money inflow before the first stake is in the ground.
•  Two, Greater capital for expansion which in turn fuels further Land Acquisition which in turn fuels further Expansion, so on & so on. Land, that’s where the money is and more than that control. Control over the franchisee. If failed to uphold the quality, you can cancel their lease. Control over Dick and Mac. End Results, you have the banks and the franchisees in the palm of your hand.

Fortune Favors the Brave. So, Ray Kroc, McDonald’s, took a bite out of the competition upstart. Hamburger emporium was “On the Grow”  

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C) The real brothers who owned the brand were far more passionate about the brand than him. They nurtured and made sure their one store was top notch quality and served the best food. But he was passionate about the business, he didn’t care if he had to bend some rules or mend some ways to get things done. Business is not about passion, but about being passionate about business.

D) An undying hunger is what could best sum up what this guy had. He simply wasn’t satisfied. The brothers, on the other hand, were happy and satisfied with what they had and didn’t want to grow any further.

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E) He eventually overpowers the brothers and ‘buys’ their business out to be seen today as the Founder of McDonald’s. Business is much like war, and you should only wage a full-blown war if you can go to any levels to win that war. If you don’t think you can do that, run a smaller business, one where you don’t necessarily have to fight it out with everybody.

Both the brothers and the Founder were ‘successful’ businessmen in their own right.

Just the definition of success varied.

In Nutshell persistence played a pivotal role in Ray Kroc’s life to build an Empire.