13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

For this reading reflection, I read Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's, by Ray Kroc.

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

What surprised you the most? What surprised me the most was how long it took him to find this opportunity.

What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? One thing I admired about him was how hard working he was and how he always found a way to support his wife and his daughter.

What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? The thing that I least admired about him was how he would often put strain on his relationship with his wife and daughter in order to follow his dreams.

Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? Yes, he had many businesses earlier in life and often closed them after a few years, even a couple months.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 
Ray Kroc was very personable and able to read the body language of many of his customers. He found this to be his strong point in making business sales and keeping his customers.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
One part that was confusing to me was some of the jobs he held before he stumbled upon this opportunity. I found that many of these jobs are no longer a thing and found it very difficult to understand what exactly he was referring to in these parts of the book.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
What is some advice you would give to prospective entrepreneurs?
Do you regret doing or stopping any of the jobs you did?

I would ask these questions simply because I would find his answers to be very important and eye-opening. To see his full story and all the struggles he went through to get to where he ended up, it would be very interesting to see if he would change any of it.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
I believe Ray Kroc believed hard work was a necessity in life. I feel he thought if you weren't hard working, you won't make it. I also share this opinion. Especially in today's generation, there are many individuals who lack this quality and it shows. Without a high work ethic or desire to achieve the best, we will have world full of unemployment and poverty which is where we are headed.