Ray Kroc

And meanwhile, he's talking about billion-dollar company.

A year later, the accountant was offered a job at another chain at twice his salary, but he turned it down.

Why, the recruiter asked.

Because you don't have Ray Kroc.

In 1960, Ray Kroc decided he was done with the McDonald's brothers.

He was tired of their games, tired of the attorney's threats, tired of watching them visit Chicago and drive past his headquarters without even calling, tired of pouring every ounce of energy of his life into building something great while two men in California collected a half a percent of every dollar he earned.

made.

He called Dick McDonald and asked him to name a price.

A day or two later, Dick called back.

He said $2,700,000.

We'd like to have a million dollars apiece after tax, Dick explained.

That's for all the rights, the name, the San Bernardino store, everything.

Ray dropped the phone.

He didn't have that kind of money.

Neither did the company.

The insurance companies that had been lending to McDonald's couldn't swing it either, but he had to be rid of them.

Harry spent weeks searching for financing.

He finally found a group of 12 institutions, including Princeton, Howard University, Carnegie Tech, the Ford Foundation, willing to lend the money in exchange for half a percent of gross sales.

McDonald's would pay down the principal out of that half percent.

They projected it would take until 1991, 30 years.