I deliberately went on my own to see the movie ‘The Founder’, having been genuinely drawn to the story of the McDonald’s business – from its early beginnings through to its rapid development.

I’d been looking forward to the movie for a while, as like many, I’ve been involved in the franchise industry for some time, and read the books and heard the stories of the legend of Ray Kroc. It is the legend of how he took a small burger business to a massive scale globally and, effectively created the version of franchising that we know today.

The movie both reminded and zeroed me back in on a few things that matter a lot as we go forward making our way in business and the world.

Age is entirely irrelevant.

If you think you may be getting too old to get into a business of your own – or take the leap into that ‘thing’ or idea you always wanted to do – Ray Kroc did not even come across the concept of McDonald’s until he was 52 years old. His next 30 years till when he died at the age of 82 in 1984, saw him take the company from zero to around $9billion in sales. And, if you think you might be too young to get into your own business, well, in the current trend of tech start-ups, and innovative companies started and run by young geniuses, I’m not even going to bother trying to prove to you that a younger age is in any way a
barrier either – as I don’t think I need to!

In the case of getting into business in a franchise, primarily franchisors mostly want someone who can follow a system they’ve tested and proven already. Also, a person who essentially gets off their arse to be the face of their business locally, and ‘own it’ to drive
and grow it. I guess that’s it in a nutshell.

Background can be entirely irrelevant.

Ray Kroc had quite an advantage that helped identify the potential of McDonald’s straight away, and helped him grow it. In his previous career, he traveled to and visited hundreds, if not thousands of food service establishments across the USA, selling paper cups and milk shake mixers.

Consequently, he knew what worked and knew intimately what customers wanted, what trends were hot, and generally where things were going because of these experiences. In fact, his broad travels made it abundantly clear to him that the market was ripe for every town across the USA to have a consistent, family focused food service offer destination.

Yes, he had little to no franchise or direct food service operation experience himself, BUT the background he did have, meant that it more than made up for that aspect he was missing in spotting the potential. It’s one thing to have these ideas and manifesto, it’s an entirely other thing to execute a response and solution to take advantage of it.

But, in your situation, and probably why you are reading this magazine – you are likely looking for a business of your own, probably a franchise. Well, the good news is, that in so many franchises, the very essence of the franchise model means that your background is ENTIRELY irrelevant.

Most franchisors you will see maintain and attest to the fact that they will train you in absolutely everything you need to know and do, and then support you as you implement the system. This is a great way to get into business for franchisee and franchisor, and Ray Kroc sure as hell knew it.

Persist

Persistence is the most underrated trait in business. Far more reliable than brilliance or genius, and more useful than creativity, persistence is the patch and glue needed to keep it all together while all other aspects are marshalled effectively into place. Ray Kroc had spades of persistence.

In my family life, I’ve got a simple saying I’ve said and drummed into my 3 young boys all their lives when something isn’t quite working out how they want, ‘Just think it through.’ Almost any challenge is met and mostly solved by simply ‘thinking through’ the approach. It has become of a bit of a calming mantra for my boys to fall back on in challenging moments anywhere they are. I’ve

always liked the simplicity of it and use it myself as well. Ultimately it is about focusing on being calm and persistent in finding a solution to any problem.

Ray Kroc constantly referred to it as ‘grinding it out’. In fact, his book on The Making of McDonald’s is called ‘Grinding It Out’. It occurred to me that all of us who are either in business for ourselves, or in any way considering getting into business – we all have a bit of Ray Kroc inside of us. We all have that surge of adrenalin, and subsequent enthusiasm, excitement and drive as we get ideas pin balling around our heads.

To many, on the surface, Ray Kroc was nothing special before the McDonald’s juggernaut. He probably passed as just another sales person peddling their wares. Yes, he was ambitious, and with strong corporate sales performances but, a global eradefining food service chain, that established the ‘ground rules’ for the franchising business model for the world?

Wow, that is some effort! How many Ray Kroc types are out there right now, just busting to get growing in business to prove themselves and all their naysayers wrong? They might not have a 36,000+ global store foot print in them, but in my view, enormous successes are relative. I hope that’s you… Here’s to all entrepreneurs chasing a dream.