Perfection is very difficult to achieve, and perfection was what I wanted in McDonald’s. Everything else was secondary for me.
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.
Look after the customer and the business will take care of itself.
This is rat eat rat, dog eat dog. I’ll kill ’em, and I’m going to kill ’em before they kill me. Speaking of competition in the fast-food industry.
I HAVE ALWAYS believed that each man makes his own happiness and is responsible for his own problems.
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.
Our aim was to insure repeat business based on the system’s reputation rather than on the quality of a single store or operator.
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.
There are things money can’t buy and hard work can’t win. One of them is happiness.
When times are bad is when you want to build! Why wait for things to pick up so everything will cost more?
While formal schooling is an important advantage, it is not a guarantee of success nor is its absence a fatal handicap.
The first dollar is the most you will get if you don’t love what you are doing.
All money means to me is a pride in accomplishment.
Customers tend to avoid a restaurant that’s going aswamp in its own sludge.
As long as you’re green, you’re growing. As soon as you’re ripe, you start to rot.
I don’t believe in saturation. We’re thinking and talking worldwide.
I like to get people fired up, fill them with zeal for McDonald’s, and watch the results in their work.
It’s easy to have principles when you’re rich. The important thing is to have principles when you’re poor.
I wasn’t prepared for this big room with clattering typewriters and teletype printers. You could hardly hear yourself think.
Take calculated risks. Act boldly and thoughtfully. Be an agile company.
If you believe in it, and you believe in it hard, it is impossible to fail.