A little bit of luck helps, yes, but the key element, which too many in our affluent society have forgotten, is still hard work-grinding it out.

… the title brings to mind "Grinding it out" the long apprenticeship of over thirty years during which Mr.Kroc worked for others as a salesman and sales manager and later in his own small business. 
 
For the great opportunity of his life did not come until 1954 when he was fifty-two, an age when some executives are beginning to contemplate the greener pastures of retirement.

I HAVE ALWAYS believed that each man makes his own happiness and is responsible for his own problems

Yet I was alert to other opportunities. I have a saying that goes, "As long as you're green you're growing, as soon as you're ripe you start to rot."

I was fascinated by the simplicity and effectiveness of the system they described that night. Each step in producing the limited menu was stripped down to its essence and accomplished with a minimum of effort

Notes -
When you go for low prices, offer a five star service on few key elements and remove the rest. (As in cheap airport hotels)

When you are content with the little you got, you might stop seeing what you have in your hands. 
The McDonald brothers didn't recognized that they had "Mc Donald" (On Page 12)

I was a battle-scarred veteran of the business wars, but I was still eager to go into action. 
I was 52 years old. I had diabetes and incipient arthritis. I had lost my gall bladder and most of my thyroid gland in earlier campaigns. 
 
But I was convinced that the best was ahead of me.

I never considered my dreams wasted energy; they were invariably linked to some form of action.

Work is the meat in the hamburger of life. There is an old saying that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. I never believed it because, for me, work was play. I got as much pleasure out of it as I did from playing baseball.

That was where I learned that you could influence people with a smile and enthusiasm and sell them a sundae when what they'd come for was a cup of coffee

No self-respecting pitcher throws the same way to every batter, and no self-respecting salesman makes the same pitch to every client

I sensed that the potential for paper cups was great and that I would do well if I could overcome the inertia of tradition.

I stressed the importance of making a good appearance, wearing a nicely pressed suit, well-polished shoes, hair combed, and nails cleaned. 
 
"Look sharp and act sharp," I told them. "The first thing you have to sell is yourself.

She absolutely refused to help. I'm sure she felt justified, but I felt betrayed. I just couldn't believe she'd let me down like that. 
She wouldn't even agree to work part-time or for a limited period, until I got the business going. 
That was when I began to understand the meaning of the word estrangement. It is a terrible feeling, and once it appears, it grows like dry rot,

The first signals of trouble are all that you need to understand who you are dealing with. 
 
First Clark and the company slashed his pay after years of loyalty and getting little reward. 
Then, the continuous infighting, and finally the "demonic deal" to leave the company. 
 
When you sense trouble, more often then not, is all you need to understand that something is bad.

I paid tribute, in the feudal sense, for many years before I was able to rise with McDonald's on the foundation I had laid. 
Perhaps without that adversity I might not have been able to persevere later on when my financial burdens were redoubled.

I learned then how to keep problems from crushing me. 
I refused to worry about more than one thing at a time, and I would not let useless fretting about a problem, no matter how important, keep me from sleeping. 
 
… I worked out a system that allowed me to turn off nervous tension and shut out nagging questions when I went to bed. I knew that if I didn't, I wouldn't be bright and fresh and able to deal with customers in the morning. 
I would think of my mind as being a blackboard full of messages, most of them urgent, and I practiced imagining a hand with an eraser wiping that blackboard clean

The agreement was that I could not deviate from their plans in my units unless the changes were spelled out in writing, signed by both brothers, and sent to me by registered mail. 
This seemingly innocuous requirement created massive problems for me. There's an old saying that a man who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer

But perfection is very difficult to achieve, and perfection was what I wanted in McDonald's. Everything else was secondary for me.

I believe that if you hire a man to do a job, you ought to get out of the way and let him do it. If you doubt his ability, you shouldn't have hired him in the first place

… insistence on quality has to be emphasized in every procedure, and every crew member must be drilled in the McDonald's method of providing service.

… the basics have to be stressed over and over. … And the operators need the stress on fundamentals as much as their managers and crews. This is especially true of a new location.

… I've always encouraged corporate executive wives to get involved in their husbands' work—two heads are better than one.

In our business there are two kinds of attitudes toward advertising and public relations. 
 
One is the outlook of the begrudger who treats every cent paid for ad programs or publicity campaigns as if they were strictly expenditures. 
 
My own viewpoint is that of the promoter; I never hesitate to spend money in this area, because I can see it coming back to me with interest. 
 
… it comes back in different forms, and that may be the reason a begrudger can’t appreciate it. He has a narrow vision that allows him to see income only in terms of cash in the register.

I want nothing from you but a good product. Don't wine me, don't dine me, don't buy me any Christmas presents. If there are any cost breaks, pass them on to the operators of McDonald's stores."

McDonald's today is the most unstructured corporation I know, and I don't think you could find a happier, more secure, harder working group of executives anywhere.

The three executives were supposed to be equal in authority. 
The problem, however, was that Harry kept hold of the purse strings himself, and what the situation boiled down to, except with Boylan, was responsibility without authority.

Notes -
Who controls the purse, has the power.

“Hell's bells, when times are bad is when you want to build!" I screamed. "Why wait for things to pick up so everything will cost you more? … “

Nothing recedes like success. Don’t let it happen to you.

… “you can hogtie these guys with all the ifs, buts, and whereases you like, but it's not going to help the business one goddam bit. 
There'll be just one great motivator in developing loyalty in this operation. That is if I've got a fair, square deal, and the guy makes money. …”

I believe that if you think small, you’ll stay small.

if you have a few extra feet of griddle and an extra fry station, or if you install one more cash register than existing business requires, you'll be challenged to put them to use.

My brother Bob talks the language of science. He's pedantic and painstaking; he's willing to get fewer things done in order to make fewer mistakes. 
I'm impatient. I'm willing to make a few mistakes in order to get things done.

Happiness is not a tangible thing, it's a byproduct —a byproduct of achievement.