Lessons From Beyond the Graves of Leaders

I was reading ChaosScenario blog and came across a new book that talks about lessons in leadership from leaders who are now dead. Here is some insight from Ray Kroc of MacDonalds - it also shows how building companies is hard, no one not even the greats have not had setbacks...what separates them is their resilience and passion to succeed.

"Ray Kroc, a high school dropout, built a business by convincing companies that sold shakes and malts (such as Walgreens) that using paper cups instead of glassware would increase their sales volume. Kroc further helped their businesses by devising a contraption that would allow them to make multiple shakes at once.

World War II and a slew of other factors caused orders for his machines to slow to a near stop. When he happened upon a couple of brothers in California selling quick lunches (and shakes!), Kroc saw an opportunity to transform the way Americans saw lunch.

Though he may have too hastily signed a contract detailing the franchising opportunity, he never relented in his pursuit of his dream, and after more than five years of quality management and trying to make ends meet (assuming enormous debt to buy out his less ambitious business partners), McDonald's started making a profit, and eventually served "billions and billions" of burgers that, at the time, far exceeded the standard fare of the day."