A must-watch movie for entrepreneurs is “The Founder”.
It stars Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, the man who went from being a 52-year old milkshake mixer salesman to building McDonald’s into the most successful fast food empire in the world.
(I highly recommend Kroc’s autobiography, “Grinding It Out”, as well)
If I asked people who watched the movie what Kroc’s secret to success was, most would probably answer that it was his persistence.
A strong case can be made for that …
Near the end of the movie, Kroc looks right into the camera (as he’s practicing a speech in the mirror) and tells the audience:
“Now, I know what you’re thinkin’. How the hell 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”
I’m not going to deny that persistence was a big part of it – if you look up the word “persistence” in the dictionary, Kroc’s picture is right next to it.
But I think a big reason for Kroc and McDonald’s success was the ability to think outside the box.
It's all about generating good ideas. For example:
- McDonald’s introduced the assembly-line way of making food which was revolutionary for the time. The result was food that was ready in 30 seconds, not 30 minutes.
- The old hamburger stands had girls on roller skates delivering the orders out to parked cars. This was inconvenient, and the orders were often wrong. McDonald’s changed that and made customers walk to the counter and order/get their food there.
- While the old restaurants used glass and china plates, McDonald’s used paper cups and plates that could be thrown away (they didn’t require cleaning and nothing got broken, saving the restaurant a lot of time and money)
- And McDonald’s also had the “crazy” idea of putting big golden arches on the restaurants to draw eyeballs …
Persistence was a super power of Kroc’s, but McDonald’s was successful because he had unique ideas.
The same trait can be applied to any industry, including coaching.
If you'd like to build up your "idea muscle", you'll want to get your hands on the November issue of the Secret Coach Club hard copy newsletter.
Inside you'll find an ideas exercise that I adapted from a famous blogger that's generating a lot of new ideas that I'm putting to work for my business.
The deadline to subscribe is tomorrow at midnight EST, and you can do so here:
Marc Mawhinney