Ray Kroc

It was steady.

It was predictable.

And it was growing with every new location.

Kroc understood the math, but he never saw it that way himself.

To him, McDonald's was in the hamburger business.

The real estate was just the engine that let them serve more hamburgers to more people.

He never lost sight of the customer.

The tension between Harry's financial engineering and Kroc's product obsession was what made the company work, at least for now.

By the late 1950s, McDonald's was growing fast.

New stores were popping up in Illinois, California, and Tennessee.

But growth created its own problems.

The landlord at the first Midwest location, for instance, a banker, was skeptical about the prospects of a 15-cent hamburger business.

The franchisee was also incredibly nervous.

Before opening day, Ray got this angry phone call from the

You guys are trying to ruin me, the operator yelled.

You've got more meat and buns in this place than I'll use in a month.

On day one, they ran out.

They had to make a panic run to another store just to get through the weekend.

The operator was happy to be wrong.

The landlord, he spent the next 20 years wishing he had demanded more rent.