The Founder is a movie about how a salesman, Ray Kroc, became the founder of

McDonalds Corp. In the start of the movie, he kept trying to sell milkshake mixers to
different restaurants. He kept failing. Then he went to a drive-in restaurant that had terrible
service. He received his food after around 30 minutes of waiting, and the restaurant still
got his order wrong. After went back to his office, he was informed that a restaurant called
McDonalds wanted to order 6 milkshake mixers. He thought it was a mistake, so he
contacted them. He asked them, “what kind of drive-in can make 30 milkshakes at a time?”
Dick, one of the owners of McDonalds, corrected Ray, saying they needed 8, not 6. Ray
was intrigued by this order, so he traveled to San Bernardino to check out this restaurant.
Ray was fascinated how the restaurant is nothing like he’d ever seen. It was self-service,
and provided take-out food so you can eat it anywhere you’d like. The menu was limited. It
took less than a minute to receive your order.
As he was eating his burger, one of the owners of McDonalds, Mac McDonald,
approached him and offered a tour of McDonalds kitchen. Ray was captivated by their
Speedee System. The way the kitchen runs amazed him. Ray took an immediate interest
on McDonalds. The McDonald brothers told Ray everything about how McDonalds
happened. As he learnt about the golden arches concept, he wanted to franchise the
restaurant and make this concept become a reality everywhere. Ray convinced the
brothers to franchise the restaurant. He figured that another restaurant using McDonald’s
Speedee System wouldn’t succeed as much because McDonalds has already made a
name for themselves. You can imitate someone’s concept and way of working, but you
can’t imitate success.
All this started because of Ray’s curiosity. He was curious about this restaurant that
ordered 8 multimixers and went to check the restaurant. Because of his curiosity, he came
across something he thought could be revolutionary. He spent years moving from
company to company to find something that could be revolutionary. He wasn’t afraid to
explore more. Ray Kroc was also very determined. When Dick and Ray was having a
conversation in the bathroom, Dick tried to see if he understood Ray’s logic. He stated, “So
if you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em.” He then explained that as he saw the name ‘McDonalds’
stretched on the stand, he knew right there at that time that he had to have it. After that, he
took a risk by franchising McDonalds, using his experience of selling things, and the skills
he received from it. He was a risk-taker, considering the amount of times he failed. At the
end, he got everything he wanted. He had persistence and determination. To him, nothing
can take the place of persistence.
 The McDonald brothers tried to franchise McDonalds but failed because they
couldn’t keep the standards and lost control of quality. So, they hired Ray. Ray Kroc knew
the franchises would not fail as McDonalds was already well-established. Ray could
provide training to the franchisee for quality control as he wanted to keep McDonalds as it
was. However, the initial cost of setting up franchises can be very expensive. The
franchisee has little control over the restaurant, and even though they succeed, the
franchiser will still take part of the profits, and the restaurant is strictly controlled by the
franchisor. Though, that would be an advantage to Ray Kroc.
Ray Kroc ended up building this fast-food empire and kicked the McDonald brothers
out of the picture. He stole their name and business. Dick and Mac realized that they made
a mistake. They could’ve prevented this when Ray offered to be their franchiser. Ray knew
exactly what he was doing when he offered to be their franchisor. When Mac and Dick told
him they weren’t sure with it, Ray managed to convinced them, since Mac told Dick it was
Dick’s dream and he should fulfill it. At the end, Dick said he should’ve trusted his guts,
meaning he should have never agreed to it. They could’ve taken Ray’s advice without
hiring him as their franchiser. This way, they could’ve prevent the problem from arising.
The Founder teaches us about many things. Some we should follow, such as
determination and persistence. Some we should avoid too, such as hypocrisy and being
insatiable.