In 1954, a milkshake machine salesman named Ray called his secretary to check if anyone had left a message. To his surprise, someone had ordered not one, not two, but six milkshake mixers, each capable of making five milkshakes within a few seconds.
Ray was skeptical. Business hadn’t exactly been booming, and who could possibly need to make 30 milkshakes at a time? He thought to himself: “No one orders six mixers — what if that’s wrong?”
To make sure the order was correct, Ray called the restaurant himself. He could barely hear the owner over all the background noise. The guy seemed in a hurry. “What? Six mixers? Yeah, that’s us. Actually, make it eight while you’re at it. I gotta go.”
After he hung up on Ray, the latter was even more confused. “Does this guy even know what I’m selling? What if something’s wrong?” Ray decided to drive to the restaurant and meet the owner in person, both to confirm and deliver the machines. It’s not exactly a stone’s throw from St. Louis to San Bernardino, but after a 26-hour drive (!), Ray arrived.
When he finally pulled up to the restaurant, he saw a long line of people, queuing to get burgers from a place that — as far as Ray could tell — didn’t even have any seats. People just stood around the parking lot, munching on their fries. To Ray it all seemed sketchy, but after traveling this far, he had to see what’s going on, so he queued.
When he got to the counter, Ray ordered a burger, a Coke, and fries. Right along with his change, the cashier gave him his food. “No no, that’s wrong, I just ordered!” The cashier said: “Yeah, and now it’s here! This is your food!”
Befuddled, Ray took his paper bag and cup. There were no utensils. “Where are the plates and silverware?” he asked. “There aren’t any,” the cashier said. “You just eat it out of the wrapper and throw the paper away!” Confused, Ray pressed on: “Where am I supposed to eat it then?” Triumphantly, the cashier said: “Anywhere you like!”
As Ray shook his head in disbelief while chewing on his arguably delicious burger, one of the restaurant owners walked by. “You like the food?” “I do!” Ray said. “What’s your name?” “Maurice McDonald. Nice to meet ya! Oh, and everyone calls me Mac.”
The two men shook hands — and the rest is history.
When Ray Kroc died in 1984, the company he’d spent 30 years growing all across America — McDonald’s — made $9.5 billion in revenue. His personal net worth was about $600 million, which equates to $1.5 billion today.
Ray wasn’t born as an entrepreneur. He became one. For a time, he was the embodiment of the American Dream.
Ray held many jobs in his younger years. He drove an ambulance during the war, sold paper cups, tried being a real estate agent, and played the piano in various bands. Most of these endeavors failed.
After he partnered with the McDonald brothers to franchise and expand their innovative restaurant concepts throughout the US, he became a cutthroat businessman. He is said to have made many ethically questionable decisions along the way, like ignoring the brothers’ wishes in how the restaurants were run and ripping them off when ultimately buying the entire brand from them.
Ray may not be the best role model, but he undeniably turned McDonald’s into one of the biggest, richest, and most-well known brands in the world — and he did it with just one, ever-repeating, relentlessly curious question:
“What if that’s wrong?”
All the way through, Ray kept going. Asking. Whenever he thought something was wrong — or even just might be — he continued down the rabbit hole. That question is what made Ray an entrepreneur — and his endeavor a name everyone in the world recognizes today.
If you’re an employee but want to be an entrepreneur, you only need one question. As long as you keep asking it, your journey will never end.
It’s not always a comfortable question to ask, and you won’t always like the answers you’ll find. You’ll obsess over it, and, sometimes, it won’t let you sleep at night.
The question is like a dog with a bone, a freight train even. Nothing can stop it. It’s relentless. It doubts anything and anyone, including you, every idea you’ll ever have, and every decision you’ll ever make.
This same question, however, provides the basis of human civilization. It is the soil on which we grow freedom for individuals and nations. It is the sword of science and the revolver of human rights. If our greatest thinkers, movers, and makers hadn’t sacrificed their peace of mind over this question, none of us would be here.
This question is the only question you need to understand how entrepreneurs think, act, and why they do what they do. It is the foundation of any movement or company you read about in the books of history today.
“What if that’s wrong?”
That is the question. Be bold enough to ask it.