Ray Kroc — The Future Seen by a 52-Year-Old Mixer Salesman

Until fifty-two, Ray Kroc was a traveling salesman of paper cups and milkshake mixers, diabetic and no longer young, crisscrossing America. In 1954 he noticed a strange order: a small California hamburger stand running eight mixers at once.

Flying out, he found the McDonald brothers' astonishingly efficient kitchen — food in seconds, quality consistent, lines unbroken. The brothers were content with their one store; only Kroc saw a future spreading across America and the world. At fifty-two he bought the franchise rights and staked everything on expansion.

His autobiography is titled Grinding It Out, and the words he favored: "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; genius will not; education will not." Hundreds of salesmen must have seen that same kitchen. The future revealed itself only to the man who had knocked on doors for twenty-five years.

Opportunity lies about equally; whether you can pick it up is decided by the persistence that came before.

What do you work for?