The Founder Quotes

Taglines Risk taker. Rule breaker. Game changer.

Mac McDonald So, we moved the restaurant, we're setting up shop, but now we wanna do a few tweaks, because now it's 1940 and drive-ins are all the rage. I mean, they're the hottest thing going, and I say, "Dick, we gotta get in on this," and Dick says...

Dick McDonald Okay.

Mac McDonald And two months later, we opened for business: McDonald's Famous BBQ. 27-item menu, uniformed waitresses, bring your food right to the car, and it goes gangbusters. We're going "great guns!" But then, sales started to level off.

Dick McDonald The drive-in model, as we've learned, has a few built-in problems.

Ray Kroc Tell me about it.

Dick McDonald I mean, for starters, there's the customer issue. Drive-ins tend to attract, shall we say, a less-than-desirable clientele.

Mac McDonald Teenagers.

Dick McDonald Hot-rodders and hooligans. Juvenile delinquents in blue jeans. And then, there's the service. It takes forever and a day for your food to arrive, and when it finally does...

Ray Kroc It's usually wrong.

Dick McDonald Yeah, the carhops are too busy dodging gropes to remember that you wanted strawberry phosphate, not cherry.

Ray Kroc Well, that's a thing to remember at all.

Mac McDonald And then, there's the expenses. The huge payroll due to the large staff required, dishes being constantly broken or stolen.

Dick McDonald Tremendous overhead.

Mac McDonald So, one day, Dick has a realization. He sees that the bulk of our sales are in only three items: Hamburgers, french fries, and soft drinks.

Dick McDonald 87%.

Mac McDonald So, we say to ourselves, let's focus on what sells. And that's exactly what we do. Brisket, gone. Tamales, gone. But, we don't stop there. We look at everything. What else don't we need?

Dick McDonald Turns out, quite a lot.

Mac McDonald and Dick McDonald Carhops?

Dick McDonald Walk up to a window, get your food yourself.

Mac McDonald Dishes?

Dick McDonald All-paper packaging, disposable.

Mac McDonald Cigarette machines, jukeboxes.

Dick McDonald Drive out the riff-raff.

Ray Kroc Creating a family-friendly environment.

Mac McDonald But that's not enough.

Ray Kroc Alright.

Mac McDonald See, our whole lives, we'd piggy-backed off other people's ideas. We wanted something that wasn't just different, it had to be better. It needed to be ours, and that's what brings us to the biggest cut of all.

Ray Kroc Which was?

Mac McDonald The wait.

Dick McDonald Orders ready in 30 seconds, not 30 minutes.

Ray Kroc Now, I know what you're thinkin'. How the heck does a 52-year-old, over-the-hill milkshake-machine salesman... build a fast-food empire with 16,000 restaurants, in 50 states, in 5 foreign countries... with an annual revenue of in the neighborhood of $700,000,000.00... One word... PERSISTENCE. Nothing in this world can take the place of good old persistence. Talent won't. Nothing's more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius won't. Unrecognized genius is practically a cliche. Education won't. Why the world is full of educated fools. Persistence and determination alone are all powerful.

Mac McDonald Speed. That's the name of the game. The first stop for every McDonald's hamburger is the grill. Manned by two cooks, whose sole job it is to cook those all-beef beauties to perfection. Meanwhile, as the patty cooks, our dressers get the buns ready. Watch out. Burger crossing!

McDonald's Employees Burger crossing!

Mac McDonald Every McDonald's burger has two pickles, a pinch of onions, and a precise shot of ketchup and mustard.

Ray Kroc Now, where did you get those?

Mac McDonald We made them.

Ray Kroc Made them?

Mac McDonald Yes, custom-built. The whole kitchen is. Next, this is the finishing station where we put the whole thing together. And...

Mac McDonald Voila! A fresh, delicious burger from grill to counter in 30 seconds.

Ray Kroc I know what you're thinkin'... What the heck do I need a 5-spindle for... when I barely sell enough milkshakes to justify my single-spindle. Right? Wrong. Are you familiar with the notion of the chicken or the egg? Mr. Griffith, I mentioned... that there'd be costs. Well, I think it applies here. Do you not need the multimixer because, well heck, you're not selling enough milkshakes. Or are you not selling enough milkshakes because you don't have a multimixer? I firmly believe it's the latter. Because your customer comes in here and he knows if he orders a shake from your establishment... that well, he's in for a terrific wait. He's done it before and he thinks to himself, well, by golly, I'm not gonna make that mistake again. But if ya had the Prince Castle, 5-spindle, multimixer... with patented direct-drive electric motor we'd greatly increase your ability to produce... delicious, frosty milkshakes, FAST. Mark my words. Dollars to donuts, you'll be sellin more of those sons-of-bitches... than you can shake a stick at. You increase the supply, and the demand will follow... Increase supply, demand follows. Chicken, egg. Do you follow my logic? I know you do because you're a bright, forward thinking guy who... knows a good idea when he hears one. So... What do you say?

Ray Kroc Let me explain something to you, Dick... You boys have full say over what goes on inside the restaurants. But outside, above, below... your authority stops at the door. And at the floor. All right?

Mac McDonald What is he saying?

Dick McDonald He's buying the land.

Mac McDonald Our land?

Dick McDonald A hothead like that, you don't know what he's capable of.

Mac McDonald It's all bluster, Dick. His bark is worse than his bite.

Dick McDonald That's what ] said.

Ray Kroc I want a divorce.

Taglines In the world of business, it's founders keepers.

Ray Kroc While you two boys were content to sit back and become a couple of also-rans... I wanna take the future. I wanna win. And you don't get there by being some "aw shucks" guy sap. There's no place in business for people like that. Business is war. It's dog eat dog, rat eat rat. If my competitor were drowning, I'd walk over and put a hose right in his mouth. Can you say the same?

Mac McDonald I can't. Nor would I want to.

Ray Kroc Hence, your single location.

Mac McDonald We want you out of this company, Ray.

Ray Kroc Mac, how do you propose we do that?

Mac McDonald We will sue you, whatever it takes.

Ray Kroc And you'd probably win. But you can't afford to sue me. I'd bury you in court costs alone. Mac, I'm the president and C.E.O. of a major corporation with land holdings in 17 states... You run a burger stand in the desert. I'm national. You're fucking local.

Taglines He took someone else's idea and America ate it up.

Ray Kroc A couple of Illinois boys. Made good. Only in America. Only in America. Only in America!

Employee (San Bernadino) Hi, welcome to McDonald's. May I take your order?

Ray Kroc Yeah, I'll have a hamburger, french fries, and a Coca-Cola.

Employee (San Bernadino) That'll be 35 cents, please.

Ray Kroc All right.

Employee (San Bernadino) 15 cents is your change.

Employee (San Bernadino) Here you are.

Ray Kroc What's this?

Employee (San Bernadino) Your food.

Ray Kroc No, no, no, I just ordered.

Employee (San Bernadino) And now it's here.

Ray Kroc You sure?

Ray Kroc All right.

Ray Kroc Where's the umm... the silverware and plates and everything?

Employee (San Bernadino) You just eat it straight out of the wrapper, and then you throw it all out.

Ray Kroc Really? OK.

Ray Kroc Where do I eat it?

Employee (San Bernadino) In your car, at the park, at home. Wherever you like.

Ray Kroc OK. OK. OK, thank you.

Ray Kroc Nobody had eight multi-mixers in one business. So I went out there. And I was amazed! They were serving hamburgers for fifteen cents. French fries for ten cents and milkshakes for twenty cents. And basically that was the menu, and I said, that's for me. Now I have ultimatums, you know. Except that I'd like to be able to say that. I bought the agreement back from them for two million, seven hundred thousand dollars. I got the name, the golden arches, basically it was a matter of me working longer and harder than anybody else. I'll take every resource that I have and I'll put it in and I'll go for broke if I believe in it. The only thing I could do besides play the piano, was to talk. What happened to my talk? It's not dog eat dog out there in that competitive world, it's more like rat eat rat.

Ray Kroc I was by your restaurant today too.

Jerry Cullen And, what about it?

Ray Kroc What about it? You got corn on the cob, you got fried chicken.

Jerry Cullen People love fried chicken.

Ray Kroc Do they? Well let them go somewhere where they serve fried chicken and your kitchen is filthy, like what the hell is the matter with you guys?

Jerry Cullen Look, Ray, I don't know about you, but I'm retired.

Jack Horford You said this would be a good place to park our money. It's an investment.

Jerry Cullen If I wanted a job, I would have applied for a cook position.

Ray Kroc You couldn't get a job as a cook at one of my restaurants.

Divorce Lawyer When quietly trying to settle a divorce, the first thing to ask is, what will she want? And is her request reasonable and equitable, in terms of marital property. There's a house, a car, savings and checking accounts, insurance.

Ray Kroc Just give it to her. House, car, insurance.

Divorce Lawyer What about the business?

Ray Kroc Nope.

Divorce Lawyer Ray, you have to understand, she's-

Ray Kroc Let me explain something to you. That's never going to happen. I would sooner die, than give her one share of stock in McDonald's.

Mac McDonald Well, we were young and hungry. There wasn't a job to be had in all of New Hampshire, so we decided to pack our bags and head west, to Hollywood. I wanted to be in the movie business, and Dick, well, he wanted to be...

Dick McDonald Employed.

Mac McDonald So, we landed jobs at Columbia Pictures, driving trucks.

Ray Kroc Huh.

Mac McDonald And after a few years, we've had enough saved to buy our own little piece of show business-a beautiful little movie theatre in Glendora, which would've been swell-except for the timing: it was September of 29.

Ray Kroc Oooh.

Mac McDonald One minute, we're screening The Gold Diggers of Broadway, and the next it's "Brother, can you spare a dime?

Dick McDonald I couldn't.

Ray Kroc What's your name?

Leonard Rosenblatt Leonard. Leonard Rosenblatt.

Ray Kroc Rosenblatt? What's a Jew doing selling Catholic Bibles?

Leonard Rosenblatt Making a living.

Ray Kroc McDonald's... is... family. Isn't that great? You know what I see when I see that? Family. We're one big family. Aren't we? We have mouths to feed. That's a family.

Ray Kroc I'm looking for a few good men... and women. Who aren't afraid of hard work. Aren't afraid to roll up their sleeves. I'm looking for scrappers, hustlers, guys that are willing to roll up their sleeves. They're livin on drive, they got a little fire in their belly. I stand right here before you today, I'm gonna offer you something as precious as gold. And you know what that is? Anybody? Anybody? Opportunity. It's opportunity. Opportunity. Opportunity to advance, to move forward, to move up, to advance... To succeed. To win. To step up. The sky's the limit. The sky is the limit. Grab the brass ring. To give yourself a shot at the American dream. Put your arms around the American dream. Opportunity. Cause I'll tell ya somethin'... At McDonald's? It's like this great nation of ours... Some of that elbow grease. I guarantee ya, if you got the guts... the gumption, the desire... I guarantee ya you can succeed. There's gold to be had. At the end of... those Golden Arches... Golden Arches. Golden Arches. Now who's with me? Who wants to jump on that ladder to success? Be part of the McDonald's "mishpokhe". Now who's with me? Come on, lemme see some hands.

Taglines You've had their food, but do you know their story?

Harry J. Sonneborn So to summarize, you have a minuscule revenue stream. No cash reserves. And an albatross of a contract that requires you to go through a slow approval process to enact changes if they're approved at all.

Ray Kroc Which they never are.

Harry J. Sonneborn Am I missing anything?

Ray Kroc That about sums it up.

Harry J. Sonneborn Tell me about the land.

Ray Kroc The... land?

Harry J. Sonneborn The land, the buildings, how that whole aspect of it works.

Ray Kroc Oh, pretty simple really. Franchisee finds a piece of land he likes. Gets a lease, usually 20 years. Takes out a construction loan, throws up a building and off he goes.

Harry J. Sonneborn So the operator selects the site.

Ray Kroc Yeah.

Harry J. Sonneborn He picks the property?

Ray Kroc Right.

Harry J. Sonneborn You provide the training, the system, the operational know-how, and he's responsible for the rest?

Ray Kroc Is there a problem?

Harry J. Sonneborn A big one. You don't seem to realize what business you're in. You're not in the burger business. You're in the real estate business. You don't build an empire off a 1.4 percent cut of a 15-cent hamburger. You build 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 and leasing said plots to franchisees who as a condition of their deal, should be permitted to lease from you and you alone. This will provide you with two things. One, a steady, up-front revenue stream. Money flows in 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 and so on and so on. Land. That's where the money is.

Ray Kroc If you've got time to lean, then you've got time to clean.

Mac McDonald Dick. We will never beat him. We will never be rid of him.

Mac McDonald This is not your company, Ray!

Dick McDonald Ray, we have no interest in a milkshake that contains NO MILK.

Harry J. Sonneborn Mr. Kroc, if you're not making money hand over fist, something's terribly wrong.

Dick McDonald I just have to ask you one thing. Something I've never understood.

Ray Kroc All right.

Dick McDonald That day we met, when we gave you the tour...

Ray Kroc Uh-huh. What about it?

Dick McDonald We showed you everything. The whole system, all our secrets. We were an open book. So why didn't you just-

Ray Kroc Steal it? Just, grab your ideas and run off start my own business using all those ideas of yours. It- it would have failed.

Dick McDonald How do you know?

Ray Kroc Am I the only one who got the kitchen tour? You must have invited lots of people back there, huh?

Dick McDonald And?

Ray Kroc How many of them succeeded?

Dick McDonald Lots of people started restaurants.

Ray Kroc As big as McDonald's?

Dick McDonald Of course not.

Ray Kroc No one ever has and no one ever will because they all lacked that one thing, that makes McDonald's special.

Dick McDonald Which is?

Ray Kroc Even you don't know what it is.

Dick McDonald Enlighten me.

Ray Kroc It's not just the system, Dick. It's the name. That glorious name, "McDonald's". It could be... anything you want it to be. It's limitless, it's wide open. It sounds, uh... it sounds like... it sounds like America. That's compared to Kroc. "What a crock. What a load of crock". Would you eat at a place named Kroc's? Kroc's has that blunt, Slavic sound. "Kroc's". But McDonald's, oh boy. That's a beauty. Yeah... a guy named McDonald? He's never gonna get pushed around in life.

Dick McDonald That's clearly not the case.

Ray Kroc So, you don't have a check for 1.35 million dollars in your pocket? Bye, Dick.

Dick McDonald So if you can't beat'em, buy'em.

Ray Kroc I remember the first time I saw that name stretched across your stand out there. It was love at first sight. I knew right then and there... I had to have it. And now I do.

Dick McDonald You don't have it.

Ray Kroc You sure about that? Bye, Dick.

Ray Kroc Look, if you don't wanna make a profit, that's fine. But don't stop the rest of us.

Dick McDonald Us?

Ray Kroc Us, as in everyone but you.

Dick McDonald Who did you send them to?

Ray Kroc Everyone but you.

Dick McDonald You have no right. You are to stop this instant, is that clear?

Ray Kroc Nah...

Dick McDonald What the hell does that mean, nah? You will abide by the terms of your deal.

Ray Kroc I am through taking marching orders from you... You and your endless parade of NOs. Constantly cowering in the face of progress.

Dick McDonald If phony powdered milkshakes is your idea of progress, you have a profound misunderstand of what McDonald's is about.

Ray Kroc I have a far greater understanding of McDonald's than you two yokels.

Dick McDonald What? You will do as we say.

Ray Kroc Nope.

Dick McDonald You have a contract!

Ray Kroc You know, contracts are like hearts: they're made to be broken.

Ray Kroc What is this?

Jack Horford It appears to be a hamburger.

Ray Kroc It's not a McDonald's hamburger.

Ray Kroc Too much ketchup. Three pickles, not two. Lettuce. Lettuce, Jack?

Jack Horford Do you think we could discuss this later? We're in the middle of...

Ray Kroc And the patty, tragically overcooked.

Jerry Cullen I don't know, Ray, looks good to me.

Ray Kroc What the heck would you know about quality?