You’re Not Too Late. Ray Kroc Started McDonald's at 52.
Built McDonalds' in his 50s—Ray Kroc’s story destroys the myth of early success
Hey, this is Lukas. Every week, I write about all things growth. Things that work for me, challenges I face, tips I got from others. I talk about growing as a person and a professional. If that's something that excites you, subscribe to get the next post to your inbox!
🔥 Key Takeaways in 30 Seconds
Success doesn’t have an age limit – Ray Kroc built McDonald’s in his 50s.
Risk isn’t optional – it’s the engine behind any meaningful progress.
Achievement without challenge feels empty – we need real stakes to feel fulfilled.
Artificial goals can demotivate – tie your targets to something real and meaningful.
Even in massive success stories, the beginnings are often messy, unglamorous, and very human.
I love reading stories about businesses we take for granted today. You know the ones – brands that are literally everywhere, part of our daily lives, and have somehow become a symbol of “normal.”
McDonald's is definitely one of those. It’s just… there. Everywhere.
So much so, that it’s easy to forget it all started with one man chasing a vision.
That’s why I enjoyed Grinding It Out so much.
While I don’t really like what McDonald’s stands for today (and let’s be honest, it didn’t do our eating habits any favors), that doesn’t take away from how impressive Ray Kroc’s business journey was.
He wasn’t some wunderkind founder in Silicon Valley. He wasn’t a teenager with an app. He was a guy in his fifties, on his third or fourth major business attempt.
And still, he managed to scale one small restaurant in California into one of the biggest brands in the world in his lifetime.
That alone deserves some respect.
To me, this is the antidote to the glorification of young, flashy success stories – the Forbes 30 Under 30 club, the 19-year-olds raising millions, the pressure to "make it" by the time you hit 25.
So if you’re like me, a 30-something (or beyond) who hasn’t sold a startup or raised a Series B – take a breath.
Ray’s story is proof that there are many versions of success, and most of them don’t look like what you see on LinkedIn.
Here are some of my favorite parts of the book.
On Risk and Comfort
“You’re not going to get it free,” I said, “and you have to take risks. I don’t mean to be a daredevil, that’s crazy. But you have to take risks, and in some cases you must go for broke. If you believe in something, you’ve got to be in it to the ends of your toes. Taking reasonable risks is part of the challenge. It’s the fun.”
"Too many young Americans these days don’t get a chance to learn how to enjoy work. Much of this country’s social and political philosophy seems aimed at removing the risks from life one by one."
This part hit me hard. It might’ve been written decades ago, but the message still echoes today.
Even though the world has changed since Kroc’s days, our relationship with risk hasn’t improved much. In fact, it might’ve gotten worse in some ways.
We’ve built systems – schools, parenting styles, even workplaces – that do everything possible to remove uncertainty.
Kids aren’t allowed to fall.
Students get punished for going off-script.
And grown-ups? We build careers around safety nets and checklists – rarely asking if we even enjoy the path we’re on.
At the same time, we’re seeing more and more people feeling lost, unfulfilled, and disconnected.
Could it be that we need some risk in our lives to feel alive and purposeful?
Kroc wasn’t talking about thrill-seeking. He was talking about meaning. About believing in something enough to go all in.
And maybe we’ve lost some of that muscle.
On Achievement and Real Satisfaction
"I didn’t bother setting sales goals for Multimixer. I didn’t need any artificial incentives to keep me working at top speed."
"As I told a group of business students in one of the talks I gave at Dartmouth, it is impossible to grant someone happiness. The best you can do, as the Declaration of Independence put it, is to give him the freedom to pursue happiness. Happiness is not a tangible thing, it’s a byproduct of achievement. 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."
This was one of the best parts of the book.
Because it’s not just about hustle. It’s about real effort, real challenge, and the real joy that comes from doing something hard and pulling it off.
It reminded me of all the times I hit some artificial target – a KPI, a vanity metric, a sales goal that was just… there.
Sure, I hit it. But I didn’t feel much.
Why?
Because there was no real purpose in it. No risk. No personal meaning. It was just a metric someone decided on, often without spending time explaining how they got to that number.
It’s like racing people who are way slower than you just to feel like a winner. (Hi to all personal trainers who are flexing their times from the Hyrox open category! 😉)
You’ll get the medal – but it won’t feel like victory.
I didn’t expect to walk away from a book about McDonald’s with these thoughts.
But Ray Kroc’s story is much more than fries and golden arches.
It’s about belief, timing, grit, and the willingness to take risks even when society says it’s too late for you.
Highly recommend this one. 5/5.
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Hi, I’m Lukas, and I’m a growth freak.
I’m passionate about all things growth - whether it is in health, fitness, mindset, productivity, leadership, or business. In this journal, I write about things that worked for me or I learned from others.
What I’m working on:
Ithara.ae is the UAE’s #1 experience gift voucher platform
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