in 1972 our family was driving down to
Florida and we stopped at this
relatively new restaurant concept called
McDonald’s and this is 72 McDonald’s was
just starting to serve breakfast and my
father saw the license plates from all
over the country and said we should own
one of these so I followed my father’s
footsteps to the University of Notre
Dame and I went to MIT for
entrepreneurial classes but the degree
that has benefited me the most is my
graduation from hamburger University yes
there is a hamburger University so for
me in the educational pecking order the
McDonald’s Hamburglar has beaten both
the mayority Notre Dame leprechaun and
the MIT mathematician so hu is opened
the door for me
I now own 41 McDonald’s my sister who is
sitting in the back seat now owns seven
McDonald’s in Asheville North Carolina
and my brother Jim runs our most
successful store in Elkins West Virginia
we will serve next year 16 million
customers so to put that in perspective
every person in a state of West Virginia
will eat at McDonald’s eight times so
that’s a lot of fresh quarter pounders
coming off the grill for them but what I
am really passionate about is helping
others achieve their potential and we’re
gonna build a pyramid today on how to
reach your potential take ordinary
people like you and me to get
extraordinary results the vehicle that I
do it is a free math a CT prep class
this class has been attended by over
2200 students and their scores go up on
average three points a good 15 or 20
percent and helps them get much better
scholarships let me show you how we do
it we have about ten different
approaches but one of which is called
Occam’s razor
now Occam’s says the simplest approach
is the best approach and this is what we
do on these questions we get to the
answer simply and quickly now typically
the questions take 60 to 90 seconds to
answer but you can literally solve this
question in ten seconds it wants to know
the relationship of A to B B as you can
see is about three times
largerr there’s only one answer that’s
even close to that was the answer J
which is three times larger so that’s
what we do so let’s start with a pyramid
the pyramid at the bottom is hard work
in preparation it was actually 40 years
ago when I sat down to take the AC T
myself I studied a literally 50 hours
for this test over 2,000 questions to
the point when I went in and took the
test I had seen every question I ended
up getting a perfect score which was a
36 but I will tell you I was not the
smartest math person taking the test
that day but I was definitely the best
prepared the pyramid starts at the
bottom preparation and hard work and the
AC T is a metaphor for anything you do
in life preparation and hard work will
get you to the next level so this
pyramid will start with the AC T go to
Notre Dame to Arthur Young then to
McDonald’s so I did get accepted into
Notre Dame it’s a tough school to get
into my daughter Grace is applying next
year they’ll have 20,000 applicants or
2,000 positions the best of the best
great teachers great students but what I
learned the best the most at Notre Dame
happened on the baseball field I was
recruited I was one of about eight
pitchers it’s about halfway through the
season I still hadn’t pitched but I was
reading the book the power of positive
thinking I was reading it over and over
again to the point where I really knew
it I felt like I was the best baseball
player on the team and I had not even
played one any so my parents are calling
me if you pitched yet people in the dorm
just walking by have you pitched yet so
we’re finally killing a team eight to
one the coach coach Kelly comes over and
says to me you’re gonna pitch the next
inning boom boom your heart just starts
beating I warmed up I go out there I
felt so confident so calm it was it
almost changed my life the way I felt it
was so possible thinking about it now
still runs chills up my back I remember
looking in I felt like Nolan Ryan
I had a great inning couple days later I
pitched against Bowling Green a week
later I get my first victory against
Xavier this is what confidence and a
little momentum will do for you so what
did I learn at Notre Dame positive
self-talk
first of all I can do all
to God who strengthens me I don’t know
if I’ve said that a million times but I
constantly say that this is what I
learned positive thinking and exposure
to the best as a result of Notre Dame I
got a great job with Arthur Young in
Dallas they recruited 50 people from all
over the country we had great clients
frito-lay Haggar slacks Southwest
Airline Here I am at the 50-yard line
the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Stadium are
one of my clients I was part of the team
I was the senior account on bum brights
purchase from Murchison the original
owner I was also part of the team that
sold to Jerry Jones but Here I am we’re
working 80 90 hours a week I mean it was
intense to the point where in the office
there was a joke going around the office
some people were staying away from me
because they didn’t want to catch that
overtime bug I had they called it John
Ebert Eber Titus so they stayed away
from me Arthur Young was great when I
decided to leave to buy my own business
the 50 people had dwindled down to five
but I wanted to own my own business I
got accepted into a McDonald’s training
program let me summarize what Arthur
Young taught me again a great brand and
become an expert in your field for all
of us whatever job you have you got to
become an expert if you want to get to
the next level I tried to do that at
Arthur young so I get accepted into a
McDonald’s training program 2,000 hours
of working in a McDonald’s for no pay
you have to learn everything I used to
get up at 4 o’clock on Saturday morning
in Dallas and drive to grapevine 45
minutes away to open up the store I was
the opening manager I was the opening
manager I’ll tell you the challenge was
getting out of Arthur Young where I’m
wearing blue pinstripe suits the
polyester at the front counter at
McDonald’s and you’re charging clients
two to three hundred dollars an hour and
I’m working at the front counter and I
look up one of our clients walks in I’m
like trying to hide he comes up to me
and goes John Arthur Young and I say
bill frito-lay at this point I am just I
don’t know what to say other than the
fact that I’m just trying to pick up a
few extra bucks and they have flexible
hours okay so then he says how is the
corporate tax return looking and at this
point I mean at the front counter
McDonald’s all you’re thinking about
supersite and so all I can say back is
we were gonna supersize your tax refund
and then I give the obligatory do you
want fries with that so I get through
the training program it was a great
training program and now it’s a time to
buy our McDonald’s my father and I and
my mother buy and McDonald’s we looked
all over the country and the best
McDonald’s available was in Bridgeport
West Virginia I remember shaking my
father’s hand I felt like that 12 year
old driving down to Florida again how do
you like those sunglasses I still
remember what he said son do we have a
bright future with McDonald’s and we
certainly did but one thing I learned
pretty quickly at McDonald’s is you have
to develop great teams this team on the
left is a picture from 20 years ago and
they are literally still intact and it’s
made my life so much easier the teams on
the right are stores that we acquired
and they we are developing them as
quickly as we can to being great leaders
so people asked me how do you own 41
McDonald’s this is how we own 41
McDonald’s through the help of them we
also listen to our customers very
closely literally listen to them we open
a store in shinsen and customers would
always say to me I eat here every day so
we had a contest to see who could eat
there the most consecutive days I
thought this thing would go 30 to 60
days I thought that was quite a stretch
this thing actually lasted if you can
believe it for six years 2400 days more
than Lou Gehrig and less than Cal Ripken
there’s Bob one of the winners 2433 days
people could not leave Chintan for
weddings they couldn’t leave for
funerals they were stuck how would you
like the daughter to say to the mother
where’s dad on my most important day of
my life sorry he couldn’t make it he had
to eat at the shinsen McDonald’s but
don’t worry
so one of the things the most common
question I do get at McDonald’s is
when’s McRib coming back and secondly do
you eat at McDonald’s cuz I’m so thin
and I do eat at McDonald’s I eat there
every time when we’re on vacation our
family loves to stop at McDonald’s but I
work out everyday and it’s really add a
lot of great balance to my life I do
triathlons here’s the Stonewall Jackson
triathlon I knocked off Michael Phelps
there on the left as you can see he has
he’s a great swimmer but he has huge
feet on the right knocked off the same
bolt the year before and my daughter
says John why do you photoshop these
athletes in because you’re so old
there’s no one else in your age category
and I go grace that’s true but that’s
the only advantage of getting old
but I’ve learned a lot on the sports
field as well and I’ll give you one
story when I was doing the triathlon
down Stonewall Jackson I’m running I’m
biking with this guy and I get we get
off the bike and he says are you a very
good runner i guy I’m okay
my GPS would not lock in so I had no
idea how fast I was running so I was
running with them I ended up running a
sub seven-minute mile this was a couple
years ago I haven’t run a sub
seven-minute mile in ten years but I
learned one thing unlimited potential we
all hat can get better and there’s an
unlimited upside again self taught I
feel good I feel fine I feel that way
all the time when I’m running I get
tired I just keep on repeating that
mantra over and over again one of the
things we do the best at McDonald’s is
that we are involved with the community
we just don’t write checks we actually
are involved here’s an example of a
baseball clinic that we put on we get 18
year old high school kids together with
young 8 year olds we’ve done this clinic
now for 12 years the eight year olds are
now the 18 year old in there teaching
young kids so it’s come full cycle we’ve
had great people for example one of our
graduates this was Harrison Musgrave who
play for WVU was a great pitcher here
now plays for the Rockies we also have
leadership grit classes where we get
eighth graders together my mentor on the
far right Larry maza who is here today
when there’s dead silence everyone loves
when he talks he says students
I believe in you and that’s what this
presentation is all about believing in
yourself so what have I learned at
McDonald’s to build this pyramid listen
closely to your consumers and build
teams build teams will make you so much
more successful but our signature
program is a free math a CT prep class
you’ve had over 2200 kids that come as I
mentioned there’s not a better feeling
to sit in the lobby and to have a parent
come up to me and say I want to thank
you if it wasn’t for your help our son
wouldn’t got the promise scholarship our
goal every year is to help 50 people get
the promise scholarship which is 19
thousand dollars a pop that’s 1 million
dollars of incremental scholarships we
help but I want to tell you the story of
one person her name is Emily King
emily is valedictorian of Philip barber
high school I’ve 30s and everything but
math she needs a 27 in math to get into
a special program at Marshall to be a
doctor so her mother calls me and says
Emily needs some help she comes to my
house four or five times she’s visiting
other tutors comes to my class I feel
confident she’s gonna get the score
she’s been taking the test a lot of
times she goes in and takes the test
this is the text I get from her mother
Emily got her a CT she got a 26 in math
by increasing two points being a type-a
personality she’s totally devastated
program requires a 27 there are two more
tests she is so burned out by this test
she’s not even sure she can take it
again but she regroups has that grit
that we talked about comes to my house a
couple more times goes in and takes the
test and gets a 28 this is the text I
get from her mother she received her
letter she made it she’s been accepted
into the accelerated program thank you
for your help and support so talk about
reaching your potential Emily King I go
I went down to see her I went down to
see her she’s a freshman at Marshall I
said you’re gonna be a doctor one day
and she looks at me in the eye and says
I’m gonna make sure I treat you well
I’m gonna make sure you live forever she
didn’t really say that but but I felt
that way I felt that way so the tet
everything has come full cycle my
daughter Grace and I went back to the
University of Notre Dame to a packed
auditorium over a hundred kids were in
attendance and we taught them so let me
summarize this pyramid with you it
starts out at the bottom with success in
my early life was all about Johnny Bert
success is just about yourself as you go
up to significance listening and
building teams it’s about helping others
now greatness at the very top of the
pyramid is helping others help
themselves and that’s what we’re doing
with the AC T to live an ordinary life
you work 9:00 to 5:00 you volunteer here
and there you stay out of trouble you’re
a good student but to do something
extraordinary to build something in your
life
whether you’re building something with a
community whether it’s building
something with your family or if it’s
building wealth you have to be
extraordinary and we can all do it we’re
all ordinary people to get extraordinary
and serve 16 million transactions do the
following study as hard as you can on
standardized tests to get into the best
colleges you can get into while you’re
at college learn the most you can and
continue to learn after college get the
best job you can Kent you can get work
as hard as you can to get better and
better at this job volunteer for the
hardest jobs come to work early then
build teams as you get that job no doubt
about it have mentors that help you and
most importantly be humble about it have
some fun but also enjoy the success that
other people get such as Emily King
so in closing students I believe in you
thank you very much [Applause]
Florida and we stopped at this
relatively new restaurant concept called
McDonald’s and this is 72 McDonald’s was
just starting to serve breakfast and my
father saw the license plates from all
over the country and said we should own
one of these so I followed my father’s
footsteps to the University of Notre
Dame and I went to MIT for
entrepreneurial classes but the degree
that has benefited me the most is my
graduation from hamburger University yes
there is a hamburger University so for
me in the educational pecking order the
McDonald’s Hamburglar has beaten both
the mayority Notre Dame leprechaun and
the MIT mathematician so hu is opened
the door for me
I now own 41 McDonald’s my sister who is
sitting in the back seat now owns seven
McDonald’s in Asheville North Carolina
and my brother Jim runs our most
successful store in Elkins West Virginia
we will serve next year 16 million
customers so to put that in perspective
every person in a state of West Virginia
will eat at McDonald’s eight times so
that’s a lot of fresh quarter pounders
coming off the grill for them but what I
am really passionate about is helping
others achieve their potential and we’re
gonna build a pyramid today on how to
reach your potential take ordinary
people like you and me to get
extraordinary results the vehicle that I
do it is a free math a CT prep class
this class has been attended by over
2200 students and their scores go up on
average three points a good 15 or 20
percent and helps them get much better
scholarships let me show you how we do
it we have about ten different
approaches but one of which is called
Occam’s razor
now Occam’s says the simplest approach
is the best approach and this is what we
do on these questions we get to the
answer simply and quickly now typically
the questions take 60 to 90 seconds to
answer but you can literally solve this
question in ten seconds it wants to know
the relationship of A to B B as you can
see is about three times
largerr there’s only one answer that’s
even close to that was the answer J
which is three times larger so that’s
what we do so let’s start with a pyramid
the pyramid at the bottom is hard work
in preparation it was actually 40 years
ago when I sat down to take the AC T
myself I studied a literally 50 hours
for this test over 2,000 questions to
the point when I went in and took the
test I had seen every question I ended
up getting a perfect score which was a
36 but I will tell you I was not the
smartest math person taking the test
that day but I was definitely the best
prepared the pyramid starts at the
bottom preparation and hard work and the
AC T is a metaphor for anything you do
in life preparation and hard work will
get you to the next level so this
pyramid will start with the AC T go to
Notre Dame to Arthur Young then to
McDonald’s so I did get accepted into
Notre Dame it’s a tough school to get
into my daughter Grace is applying next
year they’ll have 20,000 applicants or
2,000 positions the best of the best
great teachers great students but what I
learned the best the most at Notre Dame
happened on the baseball field I was
recruited I was one of about eight
pitchers it’s about halfway through the
season I still hadn’t pitched but I was
reading the book the power of positive
thinking I was reading it over and over
again to the point where I really knew
it I felt like I was the best baseball
player on the team and I had not even
played one any so my parents are calling
me if you pitched yet people in the dorm
just walking by have you pitched yet so
we’re finally killing a team eight to
one the coach coach Kelly comes over and
says to me you’re gonna pitch the next
inning boom boom your heart just starts
beating I warmed up I go out there I
felt so confident so calm it was it
almost changed my life the way I felt it
was so possible thinking about it now
still runs chills up my back I remember
looking in I felt like Nolan Ryan
I had a great inning couple days later I
pitched against Bowling Green a week
later I get my first victory against
Xavier this is what confidence and a
little momentum will do for you so what
did I learn at Notre Dame positive
self-talk
first of all I can do all
to God who strengthens me I don’t know
if I’ve said that a million times but I
constantly say that this is what I
learned positive thinking and exposure
to the best as a result of Notre Dame I
got a great job with Arthur Young in
Dallas they recruited 50 people from all
over the country we had great clients
frito-lay Haggar slacks Southwest
Airline Here I am at the 50-yard line
the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Stadium are
one of my clients I was part of the team
I was the senior account on bum brights
purchase from Murchison the original
owner I was also part of the team that
sold to Jerry Jones but Here I am we’re
working 80 90 hours a week I mean it was
intense to the point where in the office
there was a joke going around the office
some people were staying away from me
because they didn’t want to catch that
overtime bug I had they called it John
Ebert Eber Titus so they stayed away
from me Arthur Young was great when I
decided to leave to buy my own business
the 50 people had dwindled down to five
but I wanted to own my own business I
got accepted into a McDonald’s training
program let me summarize what Arthur
Young taught me again a great brand and
become an expert in your field for all
of us whatever job you have you got to
become an expert if you want to get to
the next level I tried to do that at
Arthur young so I get accepted into a
McDonald’s training program 2,000 hours
of working in a McDonald’s for no pay
you have to learn everything I used to
get up at 4 o’clock on Saturday morning
in Dallas and drive to grapevine 45
minutes away to open up the store I was
the opening manager I was the opening
manager I’ll tell you the challenge was
getting out of Arthur Young where I’m
wearing blue pinstripe suits the
polyester at the front counter at
McDonald’s and you’re charging clients
two to three hundred dollars an hour and
I’m working at the front counter and I
look up one of our clients walks in I’m
like trying to hide he comes up to me
and goes John Arthur Young and I say
bill frito-lay at this point I am just I
don’t know what to say other than the
fact that I’m just trying to pick up a
few extra bucks and they have flexible
hours okay so then he says how is the
corporate tax return looking and at this
point I mean at the front counter
McDonald’s all you’re thinking about
supersite and so all I can say back is
we were gonna supersize your tax refund
and then I give the obligatory do you
want fries with that so I get through
the training program it was a great
training program and now it’s a time to
buy our McDonald’s my father and I and
my mother buy and McDonald’s we looked
all over the country and the best
McDonald’s available was in Bridgeport
West Virginia I remember shaking my
father’s hand I felt like that 12 year
old driving down to Florida again how do
you like those sunglasses I still
remember what he said son do we have a
bright future with McDonald’s and we
certainly did but one thing I learned
pretty quickly at McDonald’s is you have
to develop great teams this team on the
left is a picture from 20 years ago and
they are literally still intact and it’s
made my life so much easier the teams on
the right are stores that we acquired
and they we are developing them as
quickly as we can to being great leaders
so people asked me how do you own 41
McDonald’s this is how we own 41
McDonald’s through the help of them we
also listen to our customers very
closely literally listen to them we open
a store in shinsen and customers would
always say to me I eat here every day so
we had a contest to see who could eat
there the most consecutive days I
thought this thing would go 30 to 60
days I thought that was quite a stretch
this thing actually lasted if you can
believe it for six years 2400 days more
than Lou Gehrig and less than Cal Ripken
there’s Bob one of the winners 2433 days
people could not leave Chintan for
weddings they couldn’t leave for
funerals they were stuck how would you
like the daughter to say to the mother
where’s dad on my most important day of
my life sorry he couldn’t make it he had
to eat at the shinsen McDonald’s but
don’t worry
so one of the things the most common
question I do get at McDonald’s is
when’s McRib coming back and secondly do
you eat at McDonald’s cuz I’m so thin
and I do eat at McDonald’s I eat there
every time when we’re on vacation our
family loves to stop at McDonald’s but I
work out everyday and it’s really add a
lot of great balance to my life I do
triathlons here’s the Stonewall Jackson
triathlon I knocked off Michael Phelps
there on the left as you can see he has
he’s a great swimmer but he has huge
feet on the right knocked off the same
bolt the year before and my daughter
says John why do you photoshop these
athletes in because you’re so old
there’s no one else in your age category
and I go grace that’s true but that’s
the only advantage of getting old
but I’ve learned a lot on the sports
field as well and I’ll give you one
story when I was doing the triathlon
down Stonewall Jackson I’m running I’m
biking with this guy and I get we get
off the bike and he says are you a very
good runner i guy I’m okay
my GPS would not lock in so I had no
idea how fast I was running so I was
running with them I ended up running a
sub seven-minute mile this was a couple
years ago I haven’t run a sub
seven-minute mile in ten years but I
learned one thing unlimited potential we
all hat can get better and there’s an
unlimited upside again self taught I
feel good I feel fine I feel that way
all the time when I’m running I get
tired I just keep on repeating that
mantra over and over again one of the
things we do the best at McDonald’s is
that we are involved with the community
we just don’t write checks we actually
are involved here’s an example of a
baseball clinic that we put on we get 18
year old high school kids together with
young 8 year olds we’ve done this clinic
now for 12 years the eight year olds are
now the 18 year old in there teaching
young kids so it’s come full cycle we’ve
had great people for example one of our
graduates this was Harrison Musgrave who
play for WVU was a great pitcher here
now plays for the Rockies we also have
leadership grit classes where we get
eighth graders together my mentor on the
far right Larry maza who is here today
when there’s dead silence everyone loves
when he talks he says students
I believe in you and that’s what this
presentation is all about believing in
yourself so what have I learned at
McDonald’s to build this pyramid listen
closely to your consumers and build
teams build teams will make you so much
more successful but our signature
program is a free math a CT prep class
you’ve had over 2200 kids that come as I
mentioned there’s not a better feeling
to sit in the lobby and to have a parent
come up to me and say I want to thank
you if it wasn’t for your help our son
wouldn’t got the promise scholarship our
goal every year is to help 50 people get
the promise scholarship which is 19
thousand dollars a pop that’s 1 million
dollars of incremental scholarships we
help but I want to tell you the story of
one person her name is Emily King
emily is valedictorian of Philip barber
high school I’ve 30s and everything but
math she needs a 27 in math to get into
a special program at Marshall to be a
doctor so her mother calls me and says
Emily needs some help she comes to my
house four or five times she’s visiting
other tutors comes to my class I feel
confident she’s gonna get the score
she’s been taking the test a lot of
times she goes in and takes the test
this is the text I get from her mother
Emily got her a CT she got a 26 in math
by increasing two points being a type-a
personality she’s totally devastated
program requires a 27 there are two more
tests she is so burned out by this test
she’s not even sure she can take it
again but she regroups has that grit
that we talked about comes to my house a
couple more times goes in and takes the
test and gets a 28 this is the text I
get from her mother she received her
letter she made it she’s been accepted
into the accelerated program thank you
for your help and support so talk about
reaching your potential Emily King I go
I went down to see her I went down to
see her she’s a freshman at Marshall I
said you’re gonna be a doctor one day
and she looks at me in the eye and says
I’m gonna make sure I treat you well
I’m gonna make sure you live forever she
didn’t really say that but but I felt
that way I felt that way so the tet
everything has come full cycle my
daughter Grace and I went back to the
University of Notre Dame to a packed
auditorium over a hundred kids were in
attendance and we taught them so let me
summarize this pyramid with you it
starts out at the bottom with success in
my early life was all about Johnny Bert
success is just about yourself as you go
up to significance listening and
building teams it’s about helping others
now greatness at the very top of the
pyramid is helping others help
themselves and that’s what we’re doing
with the AC T to live an ordinary life
you work 9:00 to 5:00 you volunteer here
and there you stay out of trouble you’re
a good student but to do something
extraordinary to build something in your
life
whether you’re building something with a
community whether it’s building
something with your family or if it’s
building wealth you have to be
extraordinary and we can all do it we’re
all ordinary people to get extraordinary
and serve 16 million transactions do the
following study as hard as you can on
standardized tests to get into the best
colleges you can get into while you’re
at college learn the most you can and
continue to learn after college get the
best job you can Kent you can get work
as hard as you can to get better and
better at this job volunteer for the
hardest jobs come to work early then
build teams as you get that job no doubt
about it have mentors that help you and
most importantly be humble about it have
some fun but also enjoy the success that
other people get such as Emily King
so in closing students I believe in you
thank you very much [Applause]
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