Top 75 Quotes & Sayings by Ray Kroc

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American businessman Ray Kroc.

Last updated on December 21, 2024.

Raymond Albert Kroc was an American businessman. He purchased the fast food company McDonald's in 1961 and was its CEO from 1967 to 1973. Kroc is credited with the global expansion of McDonald's, turning it into the most successful fast food corporation in the world. Due to the company's growth under Kroc, he has also been referred to as the founder of the McDonald's Corporation. After retiring from McDonald's, he owned the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1974 until his death in 1984.

American - Businessman | October 5, 1902 - January 14, 1984

Source: Wikipedia

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

Ray Kroc

Creativity is a highfalutin word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

You're only as good as the people you hire.

Ray Kroc

Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.

Ray Kroc

We take the hamburger business more seriously than anyone else.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

None of Us is as Good as All of Us.

Ray Kroc

Are you green and growing or ripe and rotting?

Ray Kroc

All money means to me is a pride in accomplishment.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

We have an obligation to give something back to the community that gives so much to us.

Ray Kroc

The first dollar is the most you will get if you don't love what you are doing.

Ray Kroc

If you believe in it, and you believe in it hard, it is impossible to fail.

Ray Kroc

Creativity is a highfalutin' word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

In business for yourself, but not by yourself.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

Luck is a dividend of sweat.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

I never considered my dreams wasted energy; they were invariably linked to some form of action. When I dreamed about having a lemonade stand, for example, it wasn't long before I set up a lemonade stand.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

The french fry is my canvas.

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

Our aim was to insure repeat business based on the system's reputation rather than on the quality of a single store or operator.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

Happiness is not a tangible thing, it's a byproduct - a byproduct of achievement.

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

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.

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc

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

Ray Kroc