Meet Ronald McDonald’s Father

Ray Kroc is the brains behind the world-renowned fast food chain McDonald’s. The first store was opened in 1955 and since become a leader in the fast food franchising business around the world.

Kroc was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 5, 1902.  He dreamed to being an ambulance driver during the World War I but the war ended before he had the chance to be one. In his search for a job, he ended as a seller of paper cups, as a pianist, and as salesman for a milkshake machine in the 1950s. Being a salesman, Kroc had the opportunity to travel to many restaurants and cafes across the nation to sell his milkshake machine. During these travels, Kroc became convinced that many restaurants poorly managed. While selling his milkshake machines, he stumbled upon a restaurant located in San Bernardino, California, named McDonald’s. The restaurant was owned by siblings Richard and Maurice McDonald.

At that time, McDonald’s already had eight milkshake machines. Since each machine can make five milkshakes at one spin, Kroc was intrigued that a McDonald’s restaurant like this would need to make forty milkshakes with the eight machines at once. Kroc thought of selling machines to every McDonald’s store.

Kroc cracked a business deal with the McDonald brothers. Initially, they agreed that Kroc would get 1.5% of the franchisees’ profit. After a while, Kroc realized how small his share was. Kroc asked the brothers to acquire the rights to the McDonald’s name.

In Kroc’s vision, he wanted a restaurant that ran like a food factory – hot food, fast service, and consistent quality regardless of location. He set up procedures for food preparation to ensure the same quality in each McDonald’s store.

In 1956, Kroc established the Franchise Realty Corporation which bought tracts of land where McDonald’s stores can be potentially opened. By the end of 1960, there were more than 200 McDonald’s stores in the US.

Kroc’s restaurants sell service not food. This was McDonald’s cutting edge at a time when the restaurant chain industry was dominated by the likes of A&W, Dairy Queen and Big Boy.

Kroc died on January 4, 1984.

The Magic of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”

Robert Kiyosaki was a motivational speaker and author who was famed for his bestselling book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” He was born in Hawaii of a Japanese father and American mother.

Kiyosaki was a US Marine Corps officer and a helicopter gun pilot during the Vietnam War. He was a salesman for the Xerox printing company after his short stint with the US Marines.

His first entrepreneurial success was in 1977 when he became an importer of nylon and Velcro wallets. Because of his association with surfers that time, his wallets were known as “surfer wallets” and gave him good profits.

Kiyosaki opened a school in the mid-80s where he taught his financial philosophies. He developed a board game which he named Cashflow 101. The game was designed to help players learn the basic principles of personal finance and investing while remaining entertaining.

His ultimate success came with the publication of a series of books called “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.”  The series has 8 books with themes revolving around business, personal finance, real estate and investing. The series sold more than 17 million copies.

Anatomy of an Internal Entrepreneur: Ellen Scharaga

We know the entrepreneur who builds a business where none existed, seeing a need and filling it, but there’s another kind of entrepreneur, the one who works from within an organization. Ellen Scharaga earned a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacology at St. John’s University in New York and then set out to make the profession better. Her early positions included Director of Pharmacy at Baxter Healthcare and Director of Pharmacy and Quality Assurance at ABEL Health Management Services, Inc. Subsequently, Ellen Scharaga served as General Manager of the New York branches of Health Infusion, Inc.; and National Medical Care, Inc., and as District Infusion Manager of the New York branch of Homedco Infusion.

In 1997, she joined Group Health Incorporated as Director of Pharmacy, later earning a promotion to Vice President of Pharmacy. In her 10-year tenure at the company, much like an external entrepreneur, she handled strategic planning, devised marketing and sales strategies, and increased service speed. She also reduced program and contract administration fees and saved the company more than $25 million. Next, as Director of Pharmacy for Advanced Care Incorporated, Ellen Scharaga oversaw pharmacy, specialty injectable, and infusion HMO, PPO, Medicare Part D, and government programs. In addition, the pharmacy executive handled specialty and vendor contract negotiations, advisory functions on pharmacology-related matters, and key-account presentations.

Today, the entrepreneurial executive serves as Senior Vice President of OncoMed Pharmaceutical, Inc., in Great Neck, New York, a company she joined in 2009. In this role, Ellen Scharaga directs the pharmacy dispensing operation and call center, manages inventory, and develops and implements policy. She has grown the operations staff by 50 percent and reduced prescription-processing turnaround by 30 percent. With a thirst for knowledge typical of entrepreneurs, Ms. Scharaga remains current in her profession through memberships in several professional groups, including the Hematology Oncology Pharmacy Association, the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and the Pharmaceutical Society of New York.

Calvin Klein: Creator of Quality Contemporary Clothing

Calvin Klein is a world-renowned fashion designer who founded the clothing brand Calvin Klein. The company also markets jewelries, watches and fragrances.

Calvin Richard Klein was born in Bronx on November 19, 1942. He was an alumnus of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. He started his successful career in fashion designing as an apprentice in a local producer of cloaks and suits. After that, he has been a designer of outerwear and fashion clothing for many New York shops.

His passion for fashion designing can be traced to his early association with Baron de Gunzburg. Gunzburg introduced Klein to the high society in a variety of settings and events. This association made the Calvin Klein brand a known name in New York even before Klein made his way to the fashion industry.

In 1968, Klein opened his own fashion company named Calvin Klein Inc. He started by designing women’s coats. His designs and brand became popular that branching out to other clothing designs was inevitable.

Klein designed and introduced the tight-fitting jeans in 1974. This gave jeans a different feel and look. Before Klein’s fitting jeans, jeans were casual clothes and even regarded as work apparel. He revolutionized contemporary clothing by coming out with designer jeans. The new design was widely accepted, especially with the endorsements of the likes of Brooke Shields.

Klein continued to produce quality clothing with modern style and clean lines. That year, he won the nod of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) for clothing designs for men and women.

In the early 1980s, Klein launched his fragrances. Among his most popular scents are Escape, Eternity and Obsession. His “cK One” made a mark as a unisex fragrance in 1993.

Klein started opening in different major cities of the US. Eventually, his stores began opening in many other major cities around the world.

Louise Hay: Promoting the Power of the Mind

Louise Hay is a motivational speaker and author who founded the Hay House, her own publishing company.

Hay was a childhood victim of abuse and poverty. She has to run away during her teens. She became a model and met a wealthy businessman who later became her husband. After 14 years, the marriage ended in a divorce.

After her divorce with her husband, Hay began attending the Church of Religious Science. There, she eventually became a counselor. She found a new meaning to life and began a career focused on helping others.

Hay began to work on the relation of illness with the thought process. She promoted the power of positive thinking. Her views led her to write her book Heal Your Body. Her book became a bestseller and was listed by the New York Times for 13 weeks.

She started the Hay House to publish her self-help materials. She also founded the Louise L. Hay Charitable Fund and the Hay Foundation.

Peggy Guggenheim’s Influence on American Modern Art

Peggy Guggenheim was a popular art collector who lived in the early to mid 1900s. Although she was often associated with her family’s wealth, her art collection was a major historical significance in how modern art was accepted.

Guggenheim was born on August 26, 1898 in New York City. She worked as a clerk in a local bookstore during the World War I. She was exposed to the bohemian artist community during this time. She was so amazed by the visual artists and writers. She used her inheritance to move to Paris and focus on art.

The culture of Paris exposed her further to avant-garde artists and writers. She befriended many of these artists. Later, she decided to promote their works of art by opening a gallery in London in 1938. The gallery was named Guggenheim Jeune.

Before the World War II, she started filling her gallery. Later, she focused on reserving the artworks rather than selling them. She closed her gallery and started to focus on building London’s Museum of Modern Art. During the planning of the Museum, Guggenheim listed the artworks she would purchase to fill the museum with. However, the War broke so she abandoned her plans.

With her list, she started to find as many artworks as available. Some included the works of Picasso, Man Ray, and Ernst. She brought the artwork when she fled from the Europe during the War. She opened a museum in New York. The museum preserved some priced, old artworks.

Guggenheim closed her New York museum in 1946 and moved to Venice. There, she continued collecting artwork. She did not open a gallery but lent her collection instead to other museums and exhibits. Later, she stopped buying art and focused on sharing it.

Guggenheim died on December 29, 1979. She was known as one of the most influential promoters of modern art in the US.