Book · 1978 · Biography & Autobiography
Grinding it Out
The Making of McDonald's
- mentions
- 11
- people
- 2
- podcast
- 1
- episodes
- 5
- critical mentions
- 0
I finally got around to Grinding It Out, the Ray Kroc story. Oh, absolutely fantastic.
Jason Calacanis · This Week in Startups · Dec 2021 Listen at 1:21:32 What they say about it
- Mentioned the movie The Founder“seen the movie The Founder”2
- Discussed Ray Kroc as a founder“Ray Kroc who created McDonald's”2
The best things said about it
I'm not sure if you've ever read Ray Kroc's Grinding It Out or seen the movie The Founder.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Sep 2021 Ray Kroc was an observer of humans and opportunities, he was a hustler, he was a grinder thus the term Grinding It Out and he took pride in that.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Dec 2023 So Ray Croc who created McDonald's wrote a great book called the founder and he was an insane founder like pretty sharp elbowed insane and I know about this because I'm a big fan of Mark knofler the lead singer of Dire Straits and when he went into his solo career he wrote a great song called boom like that.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Dec 2023 Where and when it comes up
Mentions per year
How it comes up
Why people recommend it
Grinding it Out by Ray Kroc and Robert Anderson is the candid autobiography of the man who built McDonald's into a global fast-food empire through relentless persistence and operational discipline. The book received strong recommendations and detailed commentary from Jason Calacanis on This Week in Startups. Calacanis enthusiastically recommended the autobiography to his audience while comparing Kroc's journey to the biographical film The Founder, encouraging guests and listeners alike to read the text or explore the film. In later episodes, Calacanis returned to the work, revealing that he had fed the book's PDF and screenplay into Google's NotebookLM to research corporate histories and analyze business case studies. During a dedicated business breakdown episode, Calacanis and co-host Lon Harris examined the personal and emotional dynamics of Kroc's leadership style, noting that Kroc openly acknowledged his own hot-headed nature and relentless drive. Calacanis highlighted how Kroc viewed himself as an observer of human nature and a dedicated hustler who took immense pride in the daily grind, drawing a direct line from Kroc's philosophy to the gritty realities of building modern startups. Across these discussions, the book stood out not merely as a historical corporate memoir, but as a timeless masterclass in competitive persistence, salesmanship, and execution.
Every mention
Jason Calacanis and then on the bio tip uh i finally got around to grinding it out the ray kroc story oh absolutely fantast… 10
“I showed myself taking the screenplay yeah for founder the founder and the book rinded out the PDF of the book rinded out about Ray Croc and a bunch of other Ray Croc business case studies”
“and then I found out Mark Nola had read grinding it out the autobiography of Ray Croc I guess Mark no had read it then wrote this song”
“just so people know we took the screenplay we took the autobiography and put it into notebook uh LM the new Google notebook LM which we had the creator of on the Pod recently”
“unless I mean it is possible he read a different he maybe read the autobiography of Ray Croc and then he read a different book about Ray Croc that does have that quote in it”
“Ray Croc was an observer of humans and opportunities he was a hustler he was a grinder thus the term grinding it out and he took pride in that”
“so Ray Croc who created McDonald's wrote a great book called the founder and he was an insane founder like pretty sharp elbowed insane and I know about this because I'm a big fan of Mark knofler the lead singer of Dire Straits and when he went into his solo career he wrote a great song called boom like that”
“I found a public PDF of the book riding it out which I have three different versions of I've paid for so please do not sue me uh if this is your book I assume I'm legally allowed to do this”
“um so that coming from the script so when you roll over yeah you can see it's coming from the grinding it out which is his book”
“and then on the bio tip uh i finally got around to grinding it out the ray kroc story oh absolutely fantastic if you've seen the movie the founder have you seen the founder”
“i'm not sure if you've ever read ray kroc's uh grind it out or seen the movie the founder both yeah i love that movie yeah and have you have you happened to have read the book”
Lon Harris there is definitely there is definitely a a personal emotional Dimension to this rivalry that I think of bo… 1
“there is definitely there is definitely a a personal emotional Dimension to this rivalry that I think of both sides probably kept them from seeing things entirely clearly like uh Ray Croc kind of a hot-headed guy even by his own admission”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (2: passing, ad reads, own books)
“and that is the criticism of the franchise business model and it's all the the great part about it is you know the franchisees have to do all the work uh but they may get this incredible formula now this is something that's hotly debated”
“also because Mark knofler did the song boom like that after reading the McDonald's Ray Crocs biography biography a director heard the song boom like that and then got inspired to read the biography and then wanted to make the founder”