Page 66 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s

It’s your money.
It’s your kids’ future inheritance.

Uncle Fred

P.S. After you dope out your maze strategy, please work on
Project II, i.e., how do you double the number of shares you
own as of April 1987? Force yourself to take a piece of paper,
make necessary assumptions, and make calculations, and lay
out a Project II plan. After you finish Project II 92 and Proj-
ect II 97, please wink at me . . . I won’t ask what II 97 is. . . .
I just want to know you did the exercise.

Fred

Because most of us had started as crew, from predominately
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blue-collar families, we had very little exposure to the path to
becoming prosperous. Our priorities were more about our fledg-
ing careers and young families. Many of us had little time or
understanding of such a far-reaching goal of financial security.
And then, out of the blue, we received this handwritten letter that
was sent to our homes. Here was that path to prosperity, hand-
written, no less, by Fred Turner, the man responsible for trans-
forming McDonald’s into what it is today. Now, as a young,
newly elected officer, I reinvigorated my faith and trust in the
company, feeling much the way I had as an assistant manager
out on a date at a restaurant when I bumped into Pete Hunt, the
franchisee I worked for, who picked up the tab for us—a deep
and meaningful gesture. In both cases, that care, support, and
concern was perhaps the best perk about working within the sys-
tem. It’s a quality that is easily taken for granted when you’re in
the system, but something that is sorely missed once you leave.