Ray Kroc Quotes & Sayings

There's a lot more future in hamburgers than in baseball. — Ray Kroc

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. — Ray Kroc

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

Visions of McDonald's restaurants dotting crossroads all over the country paraded through my brain. I don't believe in saturation. We're thinking and talking worldwide. — Ray Kroc

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, — Ray Kroc

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

Luck is a dividend of sweat. — Ray Kroc

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

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

When you're green, your growing. When you're ripe, you rot. — Ray Kroc

Customers tend to avoid a restaurant that's going aswamp in its own sludge. — Ray Kroc

In business for yourself, but not by yourself. — Ray Kroc

All money means to me is a pride in accomplishment. — Ray Kroc

We have an obligation to give something back to the community that gives so much to us. — Ray Kroc

The first dollar is the most you will get if you don't love what you are doing. — Ray Kroc

The french fry is my canvas. — Ray Kroc

Are you green and growing or ripe and rotting? — Ray Kroc

Our aim was to insure repeat business based on the system's reputation rather than on the quality of a single store or operator. — Ray Kroc

I saw opportunity appear in an ugly six-spindle shake machine ... and grabbed it. — Ray Kroc

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

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

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

No one of us is more important than the rest of us. — Ray Kroc

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 the best was ahead of me. — Ray Kroc

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

The more I help others to succeed, the more I succeed. — Ray Kroc

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

I wasn't prepared for this big room with clattering typewriters and teletype printers. You could hardly hear yourself think. — Ray Kroc

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

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

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. — Ray Kroc

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

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. — Ray Kroc

I like to get people fired up, fill them with zeal for McDonald's, and watch the results in their work. — Ray Kroc

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

Its easy to have principles when you're rich. The important thing is to have principles when you're poor. — Ray Kroc

I put the hamburger on the assembly line. — Ray Kroc

But after World War II, the brothers realized they were running hard just to stay in one place. They weren't building volume even though their parking lot was always full. So they did a courageous thing. They closed that successful restaurant in 1948 and reopened it a short time later with a radically different kind of operation. It was a restaurant stripped down to the minimum in service and menu, the prototype for legions of fast-food units that later would spread across the land. Hamburgers, fries, and beverages were prepared on an assembly line basis, and, to the amazement of everyone, Mac and Dick included, the thing worked! — Ray Kroc

There are things money can't buy and hard work can't win. One of them is happiness. — Ray Kroc

We take the hamburger business more seriously than anyone else. — Ray Kroc

The organization cannot trust the individual; the individual must trust the organization. — Ray Kroc

It requires a certain kind of mind to see beauty in a hamburger bun, — Ray Kroc

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. — Ray Kroc

If I had a brick for every time I've repeated the phrase Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value, I think I'd probably be able to bridge the Atlantic Ocean with them. — Ray Kroc

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. — Ray Kroc

I suffer with you. I've never seen such stupid ballplaying in all my life! — Ray Kroc

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

You're only as good as the people you hire. — Ray Kroc

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

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

I never considered my dreams wasted energy; they were invariably linked to some form of action. When I dreamed about having a lemonade stand, for example, it wasn't long before I set up a lemonade stand. — Ray Kroc

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. — Ray Kroc

Look after the customer and the business will take care of itself — Ray Kroc

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

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

None of Us is as Good as All of Us. — Ray Kroc

If you have time to lean, you have time to clean ... — Ray Kroc

To be successful, you must be daring, be first and be different. — Ray Kroc

One of my suppliers told me, "Ray, you know you aren't in the hamburger business at all. You're in the french-fry business. I don't know how the livin' hell you do it, but you've got the best french fries in town, and that's what's selling folks on your place. — Ray Kroc

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

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. — Ray Kroc

In my experience, good executives don't make mistakes. — Ray Kroc

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

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. — Ray Kroc

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

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. — Ray Kroc

There is absolutely nothing special about walking on a rope stretched along the ground. Where there is no risk, there can be no pride in a deed accomplished, and therefore no happiness. — Ray Kroc

If you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean. — Ray Kroc

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

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

Too many salesmen, I found, would make a good presentation and convince the client, but they couldn't recognize that critical moment when they should have stopped talking. If — Ray Kroc

I believe in God, family, and McDonald's. And in the office, that order is reversed. — Ray Kroc