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Lesson #4: Use Failure As A Catalyst for Success
Article Overview: “Luck is a dividend of sweat,” said Kroc. “The more you sweat, the luckier you get.” Despite all his hard work, Kroc was not always a lucky man. From his early days in starting up McDonald’s to even after the chain was a well-established global presence, Kroc experienced his fair share of failures. He was not immune to disappointment; what set Kroc apart from his competitors, however, was how he learned from his failures and bounced back.
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Lesson #4: Use Failure As A Catalyst for Success
“Luck is a dividend of sweat,” said Kroc. “The more you sweat, the luckier you get.” Despite all his hard work, Kroc was not always a lucky man. From his early days in starting up McDonald’s to even after the chain was a well-established global presence, Kroc experienced his fair share of failures. He was not immune to disappointment; what set Kroc apart from his competitors, however, was how he learned from his failures and bounced back.
During his time as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross towards the end of World War I, Kroc met a fellow young and ambitious entrepreneur by the name of Walt Disney. When Kroc first began selling McDonald’s franchises around the country, he remembered Disney and sent him a letter in 1954. Disneyland was still under construction at the time, but anticipation about its prospects was great, and Kroc sensed an opportunity.
“Dear Walt,” he began. “I feel somewhat presumptuous addressing you in this way. Yet I am sure you would not want me to address you any other way…I have very recently taken over the national franchise of the McDonald’s system. I would like to inquire if there may be an opportunity for a McDonald’s in your Disneyland Development.”
An agreement with Disney would have been a significant boon to Kroc’s growing business but, for whatever reasons, Kroc never received a reply from his old army pal. Kroc could have become disheartened and lost faith in his goals. Instead, Kroc chose to remain undeterred and continued approaching other franchisors across the country. Crisscrossing the U.S., Kroc carried on planting McDonald’s restaurants wherever he could. Yes, he was turned down by what would have been one of his biggest franchisors to date, but Kroc didn’t let that stand in his way.
Kroc’s failures weren’t just limited to his early on in his career. Even after McDonald’s had become a global empire and one of the most successful giants in the fast food industry, Kroc continued to come face to face with brick walls. The entrepreneur that he is, Kroc’s desire to take risks and innovate didn’t decrease with the success that he had already achieved. Instead, he continued to try new things in order to take his company to even greater heights. From upscale hamburger restaurants to German-tavern restaurants to pie shops and even other theme parks, Kroc’s endeavours were often met with dismal results.
What kept Kroc going even throughout the most disappointing of failures? How did he bounce back from the twists of fate that could have just as easily ended his career? With his keen sense of future trends, Kroc had a strong belief in himself and his vision. And, he wasn’t doing it for the money: “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,” said Kroc. “All money means to me is a pride in accomplishment.”
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Article Tags: ambitious entrepreneur, ambulance driver, anticipation, boon, catalyst, disneyland, dividend, fair share, food industry, franchisors, global empire, global presence, krocs, lucky man, mcdonalds, mcdonalds restaurants, national franchise, red cross, walt disney, wayi
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Why A Project Fails?
- Hello Everyone
As the size and complexity of ones business grows, so does their need to effectively manage projects. I have been thinking about the major reasons why a project can go wrong and my limited experience comes up with the following.
1 Leadership: A project manager with leadership skills and not just management skills.
2 Failure to (Foresee and) Plan
3 Failure to Manage: Ineffective change management control methods. Unclear decision making guidelines.
4 Talent: Finding, allocating and developing people
5 Scope: Setting an overly ambitious or amibigious project scope
6 Alignment: When projects are not prioritized in alignment with the business strategy, or project members personal objectives are not in tandem with that of the project / company
7 Lack of Candor: Communication Breakdowns
I would be interested in knowing everyone's thoughts on this, especially on ways to overcome the above mentioned obstacles.
Cheers!
Top performing Franchise Loans
- Evan,
There are over 120 Franchises listed by the SBA with 0% Loan Failure from 10-1-00 to 9-30-05 these companies have at leat 10 loans disbursed.
A number of the companies are Hotel/Motel Franchises so I listed them separately.
Since all the ones listed have 0% loan failure I listed them descending by # of loans disbursed.
Top 20 (by # loans Disbursed) 0% SBA Loan Failure (does not include hotels/motels)
1 21425--CULVER'S FROZEN CUSTARD 85
2 66910--PRIMROSE SCHOOL (DAYCARE) 76
3 14467--CARTRIDGE WORLD STORES 54
4 68021--QUIZNO'S SUBS 41
5 06560--AUNTIE ANN'S (SOFT PRETZELS) 40
6 29912--FIREHOUSE SUBS 35
7 31154--FOOT SOLUTIONS 35
8 52707--MEDICAP PHARMACY 35
9 09802--BEN & JERRY'S ICE CREAM 33
10 67759--COMFORT SUITES 33
11 70150--RITTER'S FROZEN CUSTARD 32
12 05650--ARBY'S 31
13 65160--PLATO'S CLOSET 31
14 67417--PUMP IT UP 30
15 69149--REMAX 30
16 71456--SALAD WORKS, INC. 30
17 76282--SONIC DRIVE-IN 27
18 84725--UNION 76 OIL 27
19 17049--CHRISTIAN BROTHERS AUTOMOTIVE 26
20 78950--SUNOCO SERVICE STATION 26
Top 10 0% SBA Loan Failure Hotel/Motels
1 10275--BEST WESTERN INN 104
2 67750--COMFORT INN 98
3 38605--HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS 87
4 36680--HAMPTON INNS 57
5 53165--MICROTEL 33
6 75385--SLEEP INN MOTEL 26
7 04160--AMERIHOST INN 18
8 69134--RED ROOF INN 13
9 17230--CLARION INN & SUITES 11
10 20715--COUNTRY INN 11
Re: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD...RIGHT NOW!!!
- Success = Thinking (Head) + Heart (Feeling / Interest) + Hand (doing/ action).
Success - H3
Robert
Dan Kennedy Marketing Methods
- We haven't sent out the physical letter yet as the person owning the list wanted to make modifications to the letter that we knew would work well but the List owner had a point - it didn't reflect her personality so her clients would know it didn't come from her.
Lesson learned for me. We're back to the drawing board with the list owner more involved in the development of the letter and emails.
I should have known better being a Business Analyst in my day job that you never leave the end-user out.
So Evan we haven't had the opportunity to test any of it yet but it's been a fun process for me to stand back and look at.
These maybe the coldest franchises out there:
- Here are the worst 15 performing franchises in regards to having the highest Small Business Administration (SBA) loan failure rates. The list is dotted with sub sandwich shops, fitness centers and car shops.
WORST FRANCHISE LOAN FAILURES Failure %
1 OBEE'S SOUP SALAD SUBS 55.56%
2 LADY OF AMERICA 41.94%
3 COUNTRY CLUTTER (BED & BREAKFAST) 41.18%
4 COPY CLUB 36.36%
5 ALL TUNE AND LUBE 35.71%
6 PICKERMAN'S 35.71%
7 PHILLY CONNECTION 35.59%
8 ROLY POLY ROLLED SANDWICHES 34.78%
9 COTTMAN TRANSMISSION 34.48%
10 HAIR COLOR EXPRESS 33.33%
11 LEE MYLES AUTOMOTIVE TRANSMISSIONS 33.33%
12 GODFATHER'S PIZZA 33.33%
13 SMOOTHIE FACTORY 33.33%
14 BLIMPIE 31.39%
15 GOLF U.S.A. (RETAIL GOLF EQUIP.) 30.77%
Source: Small Business Administration, SBA Loan Performance Within Franchise Code for the Period of FY 2001 - 2005
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