13A - Reading Reflection No. 1

1) The Entrepreneur: Grinding It Out - The Making of McDonald's

• What surprised you the most?
  
  Something that surprised me the most was that he didn't have the greatest education nor high earning job to be a billionaire. Kroc's ambition and confidence led him towards being able to work in the partnership then buying off McDonald's from the McDonald's brothers later expanding it worldwide.
  
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
  
  I admire his persistence. He doesn't stop, he didn't stop and his legacy continues on. He had millions of ideas and millions of those ideas turned down, yet later on, he's making billions. Upon his fast-food company, he remained to his values in the courtesy, cleanliness, and service of the company.
  
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
  Along with determination, he was ambitious to the point that he could be labeled as a shark. He seemed to have taken advantage of the McDonald's brothers but it could also be perceived as the term commonly used "Darwinism" or "Natural Selection" or even "Survival of the Fittest"...!
  
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?He encountered both. In the beginning, his wife didn't even support him when he wanted to quit his job in exchange for selling Multimixers to the dairy bars across the US. Even then, he still did it and started this business or entrepreneur path.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

Kroc exhibited many competencies such as his hard work ethic, leadership, communication, curiosity, confident, and opportunistic. An example is the lemonade stand where his dreams met a reality along with the market. 

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

The piece did not leave me confused since it's very clear from the beginning. 

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

- What is your opinion of the McDonald's out today?

I would ask this because his original vision of McDonald's was far different than the McDonald's portrayed today. 

- What made you keep going after hearing so many "no's" or being shut down from an opportunity?

I would ask this because many entrepreneurs, youth, or even any individual pursuing whatever they are doing can feel discouraged easily, so why keep going? Why keep pursuing? 

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

His view on hard work is that anybody and everybody can achieve this and do this. He viewed that goals are attainable if people put their mindset to it and have a path for it.  He's the type to never give up which is very important in any individual's life when seeking a goal. I would share his opinion except in his view he would easily cut off his family and I doubt I could ever do such thing. But is it worth risking it for success if they won't be there to celebrate with you at the end?