Category: reflection

I had the undesirable experience of going to the can redemption center to return my four months of bottles and cans in order to claim my deposit money. Usually, I return them a week or so at a time at the grocery store, but since COVID stores have stopped their redemption process. Of course, they still charge me, but now I needed to wait in line outside for a half-hour to reclaim my bounty.

I believe that the grocers are going to hold off on resuming redemption for as long as they can get away with it. It’s a filthy, disgusting process (that I think should be stopped anyway – can you tell?) and if they don’t need to invest the staff time or storage space, why would they?

As things reopen, I am noticing that many businesses are taking advantage of the opportunity to limit their services under the guise of COVID, but I suspect that the motivation is more financial. The bank doesn’t even have drive-up hours on Saturdays. Stores won’t allow you to re-use cups for fountain drinks, forcing you to buy a new one each time. Business hours are limited and some stores do not even open on Sundays during this time.

I wonder how many of these restrictions truly are for sanitation or whether they continue simply for businesses to realize savings. With phased re-openings and so much unknown, the line is blurred between precaution or preference. Make sure you have rationale – not rationalization – for your actions.

As I flipped my desk calendar over to the new month, I was quite surprised to find a second January page!

It got me wondering – what would I do if an additional month were possible or if I was able to take advantage of a “do-over”? Would I just fill it with routine tasks and activities that blur together in ordinary ways or would I create something special with my “found time”? Would I add an “extra” January or save the option until June?

While we don’t have the luxury of adding time to our lives, we do have the opportunity to add life to our time. Do something this weekend that you will remember after you turn the next page.

The Founder movie portrays Ray Kroc as a visionary whose genius is offset by his ruthlessness. He took credit for others’ ideas. He went back on his word. He cheated the McDonald brothers out of hundreds of millions of dollars of royalties that he promised them with a handshake. He created loopholes to skirt his obligations and even had an affair with a franchisee’s wife.

And yet, he is held up as a model entrepreneur – someone who went from being a milkshake-mixer salesman to the CEO of a company that has a market capitalization of $134 billion*.

Kroc is by no means the only leader who achieved results in a less-than-admirable way. I personally know of several others who were despised by their staff, talked down by peers and seen as unethical – while in the next breath praised by these same people for what they achieved.

Wall Street runs on tangibles – earnings, outcomes, growth and many other organizations hold that which is measurable to a higher value than intangibles such as character and integrity. The ends will always outweigh the means if that is all that is taken into consideration during the final assessment.

*in September 2018

The Founder movie tells the story of four visionaries: the two McDonald Brothers who were the first to understand that speed was a unique selling proposition in the food industry; Ray Kroc who recognized that the McDonald concept could be franchised, and Harry Sonneborn, the real genius who monetized the concept into its billion-dollar fortune.

Sonneborn was an enterprising businessman who helped Kroc understand that he wasn’t in the burger business, rather he was in the real estate business. Sonneborn had the idea for Kroc to buy the land that the McDonald’s restaurants were on and lease it to the franchisees. This provided capital before the restaurant opened, created an ongoing and lucrative revenue stream, allowed Kroc to accumulate hard assets to get more capital to open more restaurants, and gave Kroc leverage to ensure that franchisees followed quality control and standardization procedures or he could pull their lease. In addition, by creating a separate land acquisition entity, it freed Kroc from the restrictions he was bound by through the original McDonald’s contract which required approval from the brothers before any change could be made.

Kroc may have made a name for himself in the restaurant business, but it is through the reframing of his focus to real estate that earned him the prominence and real fortune.

When is the last time you deeply considered what business you are in? Is education for job preparation or life-long learning or citizenship? Are financial institutions there to safeguard your money or teach you to grow wealth? Should churches be in the spiritual business or focus on community-building and belonging? It may be time for a “Sonneborn Retreat” to reflect on the true purpose of your work.