Previous Review: The Founder

 

McDonalds, McDonalds, McDonalds, what a success! Well, all credits go to a man named Ray Kroc.

 

In the mid 1950’s, after numerous attempts to sell milkshakes to restaurants, Ray Kroc suddenly got introduced to a well performing California Hamburger Stall that was getting a lot of attraction from customers. He later was able to convince its owners to franchise it and was able to turn it into the Godzilla of fast food brands. Throughout the movie, Ray Kroc stumbles upon many challenges and debates with the owners but always manages to overcome them given his supreme persistence behavior. As the franchise grows bigger, he gets greedier yet more persistent and clever. Eventually, he went on to becoming the founder of the biggest fast food restaurant in the world.

 

This movie/documentary offers amazing insights into the world of franchising and the challenges that come with it in terms of competition, sales and creativity. One of the concepts showcased in the movie and emphasized upon is the importance of evolving and changing in business. Ray Croc who started as a partner and franchisee of the Mcdonald’s brand was always an enthusiast of adding new ideas, products, innovations and services. Whereas, the McDonald’s brothers (The Founders) were satisfied with the status quo and against any idea proposed to enhance the business and innovate on the products and service. We all know that businesses that fail to change and innovate die one way or another for change is the only constant.

Another concept of importance was the value of customer service and satisfaction, Mcdonald’s was one of the innovators in terms of Total Quality Management. This was mainly through the way the kitchen was designed, the division of labor inside the kitchen and the speedy service to the customers who by the way got their food by waitresses to their cars.

This bright, absorbing biopic – in a very real sense, a monster movie – sets out how he did it. It’s eye-opening, well-acted, and darkly entertaining.

 

 

 

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.   “Napoleon Hill”

Be a Sponge!

Start by looking backwards. Now look forward. Do you spot anything? Do you see a pattern? Perhaps you don’t. Don’t worry,  most people between 18 and 25 have the same result, nothing.

So who are you? Are you a student that just graduated from high school? Are you ready to experience the famed university life style? Oh no, your a junior and your circle of friends just shrunk. You could also be that recent graduate with a bachelor degree. In every second of every moment that just passed you are wondering the same thing. What now?

Students are expected to graduate the same way babies are expected to cry at birth. When you first graduate with your bachelor degree, they’ll throw you a party with endless congratulations as if you won the lottery. Fail in courses, skip semesters, or earn below average results, they’ll start looking at you as a failure. It’s funny how there is no middle ground here! In the eyes of family and friends, their behaviour is merely them setting you in the right path trying to encourage you & set a motivational path along the rest of your journey. By then, you would be thinking that you’re going to become the next bill gates, or startup the next Google. Unfortunately, you are falling victim to the survivorship bias, you tend to overestimate yourself. That is definitely okay. We tend to overestimate what we can do in a year & underestimate what we can do in 10 years.

Nobody is interested in failures since people like to shed light on the superstars, the people who made it. But what about the other millions who try their best but fail for a certain reason, where are they now?

Nobody cares about failures, nobody cares about our fellows at the cemeteries, such as no one will care about you if you don’t find a way to continuously “add value” and develop “irreplaceable skills”. You graduated, and you think you’re going to conquer the world; chances are you’ll likely hit countless roadblocks.

Now, this is not made to de-motivate anybody, but simply to reflect on what the rational unbiased outsider look is without succumbing to this illusion. Unfortunately, people between the age of 18 to 25 expect that everything is going to fall into place smoothly, they tend to inflate the ease of their forecasted near future. Whether it is finding the right job that keeps them sharp and motivated, or knowing what major they should go for. It is good to simplify this idea in our mind, it makes us feel better.

Given the competitive world we live in now, it is vital to find a reason why you are better than your classmate sitting next to you. Be a sponge and absorb as much knowledge as possible, to jump ahead of your age and beat the competition, this is how you can measure your success. What kind of value are you adding?

Refer to the statement at the beginning of this article. Looking backwards, you should see a downhill, representing how your journey is leading upwards as you add more value and build skills. Looking ahead, you should see a steep upward hill representing the rest of your journey.

Go back to the statement in the beginning. You should see that you are starting downhill gazing upward to the top of a mountain built by experiences & skills that you will gain along the way giving you more value in this fast-paced world.