13A- Reading Reflection No.1

For this assignment I read the autobiography "Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's" by Ray Kroc. Here are my thoughts on the book:

• What surprised you the most? 
• What surprised me the most was the amount of jobs and moving around Ray Kroc had when he was still young. One of his first jobs he had was selling paper cups and others jobs he had at the same time was playing the piano at different locations. With these jobs came very little time off and small break times until it was time for the next job. He also moved from his home of Chicago to Florida and back to Chicago again. I believed he did this was to help provide for himself, his wife, and child at the time, but reading on I read he was a very hard worker to gain extra money.
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
• I would have to say the thing I most admire about Ray Kroc was when he puts his mind to something he sets out to do it. Then again it could be the endurance he had to be able to handle so many jobs in one day and have little sleep and then repeating it the next day and only having one day off of the week. These factors could be because he was still a young entrepreneur who was passionate on the things he does. Seeing that he did many jobs instead of sticking with one shows that he was determined to earn money to better help his family and himself financially and it was during a time where very little money today was considered a lot back then.
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
• He seemed to have a bit of an ego, like in the part of the book where he becomes a salesman for a cup company he mentions getting his salary cut due to it being the time the Great Depression, he mentions that hearing that information from his boss was blow to him by affronting his ego. And he literally mentions that he is the best salesman the company has (not to his boss) and that he would not stand for it and began arguing with his boss. Now I don't know how things were in the Great depression but at the very least you should be satisfied with having any job earning any money at that time. Why he almost lost that job but his boss made special arrangements just for him, talk about adding on to his ego.
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure?
• Yes he did encounter adversity and failure. One time was during a winter when he was trying to sell paper cups to customers who would buy them for their workplace, business slowed down. See Ray thought of the customer first and he wasn't going to sell his cups to people who were not getting as much business due to the cold temperature of winter, customers he had difficulty selling to included people who sold cold drinks. And there were also times when he worked as pianist the places he work at weren't always the best scene. One place he worked at was a night club for a short period and due to him being uncomfortable with the staff and people who came to this place, when he got his payment he left and never looked backed. Another job he had was as pianist at another night club which happened to be illegal and soon after revenue agents found the place and Ray spent three hours in jail.
• What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?
• The competencies I think the entrepreneur exhibited was that he knew ways of making a tough situation better. For instance he found a way to earn more money as a pianist when he found out he had to share his earnings with the rest of the musicians there and he was able argue with his boss of another job to keep earning a decent amount of money even during the Great Depression.
• Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you:
• One part on the reading I found confusing was that he starts the reading with a recap on all the things he has done in his life and how he would eventually start the McDonald's franchise and then the next chapter it begins with his life's story. I found it confusing because why start the reading with "spoilers" and then get to the actual autobiography I feel like it defeats the purpose a bit.
• If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
• The first question I would ask if he regrets any of the jobs he has taken in the past? I would ask this because reading the book I noticed that there were a few jobs that he didn't particularly enjoy and if he ever regretted working for them in the first place. My second question would be if he regretted not taking school seriously because he mentions earlier on in the book that his brother and sister were more studious than he was so it makes me assume that might not have been the best student.
• For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
• I think Ray Kroc's opinion on hard work is that it is important, that you can go far. I do share that opinion because take Ray Kroc for instance would you really expect a cup seller would eventually go on to open a franchise of restaurants that is still popular to this day, so yeah I do believe that with enough hard work you can accomplish something great.