Short stories about famous people

He believed in the American Dream. While selling paper cups to restaurants in the 1920s, he worked his way up to become one of the company’s top salespeople.

Confident that more could be done in the restaurant business, he left the sales position to market a machine that could mix several milkshakes at one time.

His travels brought him in contact with two brothers who owned a restaurant, which bought his machines. He became a partner in this highly successful restaurant but continued to dream about going beyond making 48 milkshakes at one time on the eight multi-mixer machines.

Ultimately, he bought out the two brothers while keeping their name on the business and focused on building a fast food chain. He could have been satisfied with his impressive milkshake maker, but Ray Kroc had bigger goals to meet. Eventually, he built McDonald’s into a billion-dollar industry.

~Destiny~

A couple rented a wooden cabin in a beautiful forest setting for their honeymoon. The place was delightful, but at dawn, a woodpecker started its loud rat-a-tat pounding on the roof. The noise was so loud the couple couldn’t sleep. It happened again on the second morning at dawn, again on the third morning and so forth. What could they do? Many people would say shoot the bird. Some would say, “Who cares, it’s your honeymoon.”

This incident with the woodpecker happened to Gracie and Walter Lantz while on their honeymoon. They were a happy couple, and they discovered an opportunity. By the time they returned home, they were inspired to create the cartoon character, “Woody the Woodpecker.” Walter was the illustrator, Gracie the voice. Many years later, when being interviewed on their 50th wedding anniversary, Gracie said, “It was the best thing that ever happened to us.”

~Habits~

A woman approached Mahatma Gandhi and asked if he would please tell her son that it wasn’t healthy to eat candy. The great leader asked her to bring her son back in two weeks and she agreed.

When she came back, Gandhi explained to the boy why it was so unhealthy to eat sweets. The mother asked him why he couldn’t have talked to her son the first time. “Because I was still eating sweets then myself,” he answered.

~Music~

There was an old violinist who was poor, but he owned an instrument that never failed to charm his listeners with its soothing mellowness. Played as only he could play it, it never failed to awaken responsive chords in the heart.

Asked to explain its charm, he would hold out his violin and tenderly caressing its graceful curves say, “Ah, a great deal of sunshine must have gone into this wood, and what has gone in comes out!”

~Entrepreneurs~

Harvey Mackay attended a seminar taught by a Harvard business professor who told the attendees the 10 things he tries to teach his students who want to be entrepreneurs.

First thing on the list was, “Don’t run out of cash.” The last thing on the list was, “Don’t run out of cash.” Mackey said that he would have to say that whatever the eight were in between, you only have to remember the first one and the last one.

One final thought for the day! The rooster crows, but the hen delivers the goods.

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