Ray Kroc Quotes

The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.

If you work just for money, you'll never make it, but if you love what you're doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.

Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.

The definition of salesmanship is the gentle art of letting the customer have it your way.

When you're green, your growing. When you're ripe, you rot.

The more I help others to succeed, the more I succeed.

It requires a certain kind of mind to see beauty in a hamburger bun.

If any of my competitors were drowning, I'd stick a hose in their mouth and turn on the water. It is ridiculous to call this an industry. This is not. This is rat eat rat, dog eat dog. I'll kill 'em, and I'm going to kill 'em before they kill me. You're talking about the American way - of survival of the fittest.

That's the name of the game ... pleasing the customer. If we ever lose sight of that fact, we've lost the ball game.

The key to success is being in the right place at the right time, recognizing that you are there, and taking action!

Achievement must be made against the possibility of failure, against the risk of defeat. It is no achievement to walk a tightrope laid flat on the floor. Where there is no risk, there can be no pride in achievement and, consequently, no happiness. The only way we can advance is by going forward, individually and collectively, in the spirit of the pioneer. We must take the risks involved in our free enterprise system. This is the only way in the world to economic freedom. There is no other way.

To be successful, you must be daring, be first and be different.

You're only as good as the people you hire.

The two most important requirements for major success are: first, being in the right place at the right time, and second, doing something about it.

You'll learn more about a road by traveling it than by consulting all the maps in the world.

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

There’s almost nothing you can’t accomplish if you set your mind to it.

McDonald's is a people business, and that smile on that counter girl's face when she takes your order is a vital part of our image.

Look after the customer and the business will take care of itself

If you're not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.

When times are bad is when you want to build! Why wait for things to pick up so everything will cost more?

I guess to be an entrepreneur you have to have a large ego, enormous pride and an ability to inspire others to follow your lead.

It's easy to have principles when you're rich. The important thing is to have principles when you're poor.

If you do it first class and you don't compromise values, and you don't compromise quality, and you don't compromise service, and you don't compromise cleanliness, then everybody else who is the competitor has got to play catch-up.

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

We take the hamburger business more seriously than anyone else.

Creativity is a highfalutin' word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.

If you believe in it, and you believe in it hard, it is impossible to fail.

None of Us is as Good as All of Us.

Are you green and growing or ripe and rotting?

I didn't know what we would be selling in the year 2000 but whatever it was we would be selling the most of it.

I was never much of a reader when I was a boy. Books bored me. I liked action. But I spent a lot of time thinking about things. I'd imagine all kinds of situations and how I would handle them.

Adversity can strengthen you if you have the will to grind it out.

Speaking of competition in the fast-food industry. This is rat eat rat, dog eat dog. I'll kill 'em, and I'm going to kill 'em before they kill me.

As long as you're green, you're growing. As soon as you're ripe, you start to rot.

I was an overnight success all right, but 30 years is a long, long night.

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

It is no achievement to walk a tightrope laid flat on the floor.

You must perfect every fundamental of your business if you expect it to perform well.

No one of us is more important than the rest of us.

While formal schooling is an important advantage, it is not a guarantee of success nor is its absence a fatal handicap.

We provide food that customers love, day after day after day. People just want more of it.

All money means to me is a pride in accomplishment.

If you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean.

It requires a certain kind of mind to see beauty in a hamburger bun. Yet is it any more unusual to find grace in the texture and softly carved silhouette of a bun than to reflect lovingly on the hackles of a fishing fly? Or the arrangements and textures on a butterfly's wing? Not if you are a McDonalds's man.

Take calculated risks. Act boldly and thoughtfully. Be an agile company.

The McDonald brothers were simply not on my wavelength at all. I was obsessed with the idea of making McDonald's the biggest and the best. They were content with what they had; they didn't want to be bothered with more risks and more demands.

Luck is a dividend of sweat.

The organization cannot trust the individual; the individual must trust the organization.

If my competitor were drowning I'd stick a hose in his mouth and turn on the water.