The Founder

Honor is not and has never been a subject amongst thieves and yet, its absence is the unequivocal standard in the Olympic corporate rumble. One would think the decent looking man, garnished with a blue tie, black suit, and well-polished Italian, black shoes is really just what he is – a decent looking man. Well, not if you failed to notice the briefcase in his right hand and the sugar of words that leaps off his mouth, each time it opens up. That has to be the personification of a good business man – the ability to first convince himself of a lie to an extent where it becomes lucrative feeding off the patronage of naïve persons playing roles in the commercial food chain. However, this movie is not entirely about a business man, it’s mostly a narrative on a man in business.

Raymond Kroc (played by Michael Keaton), “the founder” of the American household kitchen, McDonald's, is no decent man. I will tell you what this man is and how it molded who he became at the end of the movie and in there, somewhere, will lie my opinion on his person.

I believe in ethics and doing things the right way, a sentiment Ray Kroc is apparently not a fan of. Though I do not approve of his methods and refuse to identify with his orientation for achieving which is and I quote; “business is war. Its dog eat dog, rat eat rat” I admire the drive and the genuine entrepreneurial spirit that he possessed which, truth be told, is lacking in this time and era. It is truly inspiring, seeing him thirst for more and more. According to Karina Robinson, Founder, and CEO, Robinson Hambro “Ray Kroc epitomized Winston Churchill’s phrase ‘success consist of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.’ fervor and persistence are the two human qualities necessary for entrepreneurship.

A friend asked me; how does he sleep at night? And I replied, “well, he’s only had 12,000 nights of practice since his death in 1984 so I suspect – like a dead man”. How he slept at night is only as relevant as what side of the bed he preferred sleeping on. However, how much he got the bed for is a question which if answered would breathe life into the saying “the end shall justify the means”.

If it’s any consolation, the brothers took the eventuality of their situation very well. As men. Men who lost. Lost Everything. There is a big lesson to be learned from the experiences of these “men” and these victims, and I will express in these words – run when the wolf howls and not when it bites. It is not enough to know your problem but to know it and to dare to solve it.

I have heard the saying: birds of a common feather, flock together - Hence Joan Smith’s role in this remarkable story. Ray Kroc was an achiever - a real grinder of a man. Of course having a wife whose ideology towards life is simply mere contentment in the average, which is by no reasonable standard a bad thing, but for a man like Kroc, she was simply hovering a red cape over the nose of a bull with no principles.

I will conclude by saying that in business, there is a crossroad between right and wrong - a choice every entrepreneur must make – and I call this interchange the “Olympian dread”. Whatever the decision, whatever the choice, it must be one taking with character, buoyancy and unapologetically with no sentimentality what so ever. Because as always, the law of “contest” must prevail: you win some, you lose some. No heart feelings, it’s just business. See ya!!