Ron Shaich

And that has led to a decision that generally when we like to be in a control situation in a company,

By that, I mean that we're willing to bet our own money.

We're willing to bet on ourselves, myself and the Act Three partners.

But we don't want to be at the effect of somebody else who has a different idea.

And straight up, when you have investment partners, the best way I can express it to you, it's a little like having a baby with someone.

You take their money.

You know, they have legitimate rights.

And if you're the kind of person I am, you want to listen and you want to be responsive.

And so I like generally being in a control position because it allows us to take a long-term approach to do the things that don't drive profitability in the short term, but actually build a far better company.

You know, there's one principle here that we haven't talked about.

And I want to talk about Act Three with you.

Everything I believe in about business starts with three words, better competitive alternative.

The world doesn't need another business.

It certainly doesn't need another restaurant.

The whole objective of everything we do is to build something that for some target customer, this is the best alternative they can find.

And what I mean by that, it sounds like fancy MBA talk.

It isn't.

All it means is

That your target consumer is going to walk past all of your competitors, all the people doing something similar to you, and choose to come to you because you do it better than anybody else.

If you're able to do that, you can win.