"I didn’t invent the hamburger. I just took it more seriously than anyone else."

Ray Kroc  (1902 -1984), spent most of the first decades of his professional career selling paper cups and milkshake machines. In that process he came across a popular California hamburger restaurant owned by Dick and Mac McDonald, Curious as to why a small restaurant needed 40 Milkshake machines, he looked into it and was impressed by his process, simplicity and cleanliness. He went into business with the brothers and launched the McDonald's franchise in 1955. He went on to purchase the company in 1961 and to transform McDonald's into the world’s largest restaurant franchise. By the time of his death in 1984, the chain had 7,500 outlets across the world with gross sales of $8 billion.