Grinding It Out

By: Ray Kroc, Robert Anderson

Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies

Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

Few entrepreneurs can claim to have radically changed the way we live, and Ray Kroc is one of them. His revolutions in food-service automation, franchising, shared national training, and advertising have earned him a place beside the men and women who have founded not only businesses, but entire empires. But even more interesting than Ray Kroc the business man is Ray Kroc the man. Not your typical self-made tycoon, Kroc was 52 years old when he opened his first franchise. 

In Grinding It Out, you'll meet the man behind McDonald's, one of the largest fast-food corporations in the world with more than 32,000 stores around the globe. An irrepressible enthusiast, intuitive people person, and born storyteller, Kroc will fascinate and inspire you.

©1977 Ray A. Kroc (P)2018 Tantor

inspiring and motivating. Hooray Ray iroc

Very inspiring book. Raise style and dedication to quality and integrity is uplifting. I would highly recommend any entrepreneur read it

2 people found this helpful

Narrator Voice

The voice tone of narrator Was not nice for a 7 hour audio book. Turns boring

2 people found this helpful

Continuation from the movie

If you have watched the movie the book will only add the lufe of Kroc after the movie ended.

2 people found this helpful

Didn't love the tone of the narrator's voice

I loved the story and the message, but was not a fan of the tone of the narrator's voice.

4 people found this helpful

great book annoying narration

Ray Krok's story is great, but the narration is just so painfully fake and annoying.

4 people found this helpful

Let’s grind it out

This is the first non IT startup book I read.

Ray Kroc who was a door to door sales man selling paper cups and later, multi-mixer, started MacDonald at the age of 52.

The book titled "Grinding it out" is so aptly named. Ray Kroc grinded out in the formative years.

Who would think flipping burger can create a hamburger high school & university, a $21 billion yearly revenue and 37,800 stores world wide.

For a man who rolled up his sleeves and started a mega biz so late in his life, is an inspiration too many.

I strongly recommend this book.

1 person found this helpful

Very impressive history of McDonalds and Krok

I learned so much about perseverence in business and be willing to take risks on your own business ideas regardless of who doubts you. Great book

1 person found this helpful

Insights from a man who changed the world

Its a rare experience to be able to peak deeply into the mind of a man who shaped the world through a philosophy based on a single word. Persistence.

best narration ever!

get it now!! this was amazinggggg , loved the narrative, great voice and emotion, thanks

Big Head

The story is interesting and helpful to understand the McDonald business and how it grew. However the guy is an unmitigated bighead, compared to other success stories of that era such as Sam Walton. The sort of guy who fall out with his wife because she won't do his paperwork, and hounds another mans wife till he breaks that marriage up isn't really the nicest of guys, even if he is one of the richest.

How to get rich - a manual.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Ray Kroc, inspired to me after watching the movie "The Founder"(2016)

When I watched the movie, I initially looked for audiobook, but at the time after the movie - this audio version (2018) was not made, and so I read the book.

I was so impressed with reading the book, that a year later when this audiobook was released, I listened and consumed it within a week.

This book is definitely better then the movie.

It gives you real insight into the mind of a millionaire and the steps he undertook to reach there.

Many books written on how to make money - made their money by getting you to buy their books.

Not Ray, in this book, he covers much of the gap left by the movie, and it highlights how he went from an ambulance driver in World War I (he was with Walt Disney who was also an ambulance driver at the time), to a piano player working for money, to selling paper cups, to selling multimixers, and coming upon the McDonald brothers.

The movie sort of portrayed Ray in a negative light, however the book highlights the difficulty he had with his first wife, the problems that the McDonald's brothers gave him (to the point he thought they wanted him to fail), and the simply hard work he had to get to where he wanted to.

As he said in the book, people thought of him as an overnight success, but thirty years is one hell of a long night.

This story is the story of ambition, constant setbacks and grinding it out to overcome those setbacks.

Lets not take this the wrong way, many of the chief executives including Ray, his daughter, his first wife all had diabetes. They probably at the time did not link this with the quality of the food they ate at McDonald's. He had multiple medical problems.

The success of McDonald compared to any other franchise - KFC, Burger King, Hardee's, Wendy, Tim Hortons - is laid out here.

This is one listen you don't want to miss.

4 people found this helpful

A business classic

My only regret is that I took so long to get around to reading it. Essential entrepreneur fuel.

1 person found this helpful

Sales Bible

The worthwhile story of a master visionary and salesman of the last century; who is really a true inspiration for entrepreneurs.

1 person found this helpful

Far better than the movie!! Great listen.

I really enjoyed listening to this. very good insight into the history of McDonald's franchise.

The value of good salesmanship!

Ray goes into detail the value of talking helping, looking after and giving your customers good ideas to succeed-also his drive and huge goals to become the biggest restaurant store globally!!

Tricky to find any applicable advice

Good book for any restaurateur or McDonalds employees / fans to learn Ray Kroc’s operating principles and story. But had to force myself to finish it as other books are much more applicable I find

Too sexist to like the author but not a bad read

A very interesting read for anyone who enjoys a business story. I didn't care for the author and his dinosaur ways - one gets the impression women are there to be help meet at best, a hindrance at worst. He wouldn't have dreamed of getting his only child - a girl - to take over the reins, but they weren't best friends anyway. I don't think he even mentioned that he had a sister, although apparently she was like him (oh sorry, he did mention her). Anyway as far as the business is concerned, I found it inspiring, although as one reviewer said, it's a lesson on how NOT to give your entire life over to your job. Ray Kroc did. Then again, he loved that...he has a huge regard for himself but then again a huge self belief is probably necessary to ride the waves when things her tough. I don't eat in McDonald's, never did really - even my kids don't like it - but a sneaky apple pie once a year is very tasty! Actually I quite fancy a filet o'fish. I guess I'm a hypocrite. But reading the story makes you more inclined, not less, to eat there. I recommend the book.

1 person found this helpful

Inspirational

I've watched the film which went my appetite for more information on what made Ray tick. this is a fantastic read and very enjoyable insight to his life and determination to push the McDonald's brand to what it is today.

Excellent

Having read/listened to many memoirs i was left truly inspired by this man. Totally amazing and humble writings. Read well too. i'll listen again to be fair. Which is very rare.

Completed in 2 days

Easy to listen to, great information and a cool story. Good business lessons and ideas too.