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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

All money means to me is a pride in accomplishment.

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.

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

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

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

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

Luck is a dividend of sweat.

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.

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.

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

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

In business for yourself, but not by yourself.