"If one advances confidently in the
direction of his dreams, and endeavors
to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected
in common hours."
Bigger Ideas Are Possible
"Did you know that the person who invented the paper
clip earned a whopping $500,000. Not bad for a small piece
of metal bent into a unique shape. But, more importantly,
another person who changed and improved the paper clip
made $750,000. He made three quarters of a million dollars
for improving on an existing, proven idea. That proves
you don’t always have to be first person to come up with
a brilliant new idea. You can in fact be very successful at
improving upon an existing product or idea.
If you look at a company like Sony, it is consistently
coming up with great ideas such as the Walkman cassette
player, the Beta Max, and the CD Walkman. After a new
product is invented, others immediately modify and improve
on the ideas, then produce and market their new versions of
the original product.
Many simple inventions are nothing more than common
sense ideas which solve minor inconveniences or improve
upon products already on the market.
Ray Kroc, the marketing genius behind the McDonald’s
franchise operation, was born in 1902. In 1922, at age 20,
he was employed as a salesman selling Lily brand paper
cups to businesses. In 1937, at age 35, Ray Kroc sold all his
possessions and bought the distribution for Multi Mixing
Machines. They were mixers that made great milk shakes,
which Ray sold to restaurant owners.
One day, Kroc came across the McDonald brothers
hamburgers stand. He immediately fell in love with the fastfood
business that the McDonald brothers had going, and
which was unique to the restaurant industry at that time.
Ray proposed to the McDonalds an idea where he would
take their business of fast food hamburgers and fries and
market it as a franchise across America.
In 1955 at age 52, Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald’s
franchise. By 1960, there were 200 franchise operations
going. Ray then paid the McDonalds 2.7 million dollars for
their entire operation.
Today, the McDonald’s corporation has its own school,
The Hamburger University, where new franchise owners
come to learn the fast food business and the McDonald’s
money-making system.
In the 1990’s, there were 14,000 McDonald’s stores
in some 70 countries and there were over one million
employees working worldwide in the operations. Today,
there’s even a McDonald’s in Russia.
Who would have imagined that a paper cup salesman
could accomplish so much? If Ray Kroc had not had the
vision, the McDonald brothers’ hamburger stand might
have remained one small store. But, Kroc had the vision
of something bigger in his mind that others never saw or
thought possible. He also believed the concept he had in his
mind would catch on.
Your Burning Desire Can Affect Others
There are some people who are addicts in the streets or
burned out mentally and some who are left with no hope or
motivation to help themselves. Although it is encouraging
to know that some of those people can be rescued and
ultimately returned to a productive life, there are those who
have just given up on life and on themselves. Those who
live self-destructive lives are not offering any positives to
the world. They are influencing others mostly in negative
ways.
You can make a difference. You can have a positive
effect. The more good that you do, the more you are helping
the world.C- JOHN PAUL CARINCI
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