Ray Kroc Quotes

The key to success is being in the right place at the right time, recognizing that you are there, and taking action!

Look after the customer and the business will take care of itself

The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.

To be successful, you must be daring, be first and be different.

The more I help others to succeed, the more I succeed.

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.

None of Us is as Good as All of Us.

If any of my competitors were drowning, I'd stick a hose in their mouth and turn on the water. It is ridiculous to call this an industry. This is not. This is rat eat rat, dog eat dog. I'll kill 'em, and I'm going to kill 'em before they kill me. You're talking about the American way - of survival of the fittest.

You'll learn more about a road by traveling it than by consulting all the maps in the world.

Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.

There’s almost nothing you can’t accomplish if you set your mind to it.

You're only as good as the people you hire.

That's the name of the game ... pleasing the customer. If we ever lose sight of that fact, we've lost the ball game.

When you're green, your growing. When you're ripe, you rot.

I was an overnight success all right, but 30 years is a long, long night.

If you believe in it, and you believe in it hard, it is impossible to fail.

Adversity can strengthen you if you have the will to grind it out.

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. Where there is no risk, there can be no pride in achievement and, consequently, no happiness. The only way we can advance is by going forward, individually and collectively, in the spirit of the pioneer. We must take the risks involved in our free enterprise system. This is the only way in the world to economic freedom. There is no other way.

The two most important requirements for major success are: first, being in the right place at the right time, and second, doing something about it.

I put the hamburger on the assembly line.

If you're not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.

The definition of salesmanship is the gentle art of letting the customer have it your way.

The McDonald brothers were simply not on my wavelength at all. I was obsessed with the idea of making McDonald's the biggest and the best. They were content with what they had; they didn't want to be bothered with more risks and more demands.

I was 52 years old. I had diabetes and incipient arthritis. I had lost my gall bladder and most of my thyroid gland in earlier campaigns, but I was convinced the best was ahead of me.

It's easy to have principles when you're rich. The important thing is to have principles when you're poor.