Ray Kroc Quotes

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

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.

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

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

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 don't believe in saturation. We're thinking and talking worldwide.

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

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

All money means to me is a pride in accomplishment.

We take the hamburger business more seriously than anyone else.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

The french fry is my canvas.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you have time to lean, you have 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.

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

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

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.

None of Us is as Good as All of Us.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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