{"id":132295,"date":"2025-08-29T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/29\/arch-villain-5-business-lessons-for-lawyers-from-the-founder\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T10:00:00","slug":"arch-villain-5-business-lessons-for-lawyers-from-the-founder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/29\/arch-villain-5-business-lessons-for-lawyers-from-the-founder\/","title":{"rendered":"Arch Villain: 5 Business Lessons for Lawyers from \u2018The Founder\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jared Correia | Have you seen Michael Keaton movie where he plays Ray Kroc in &#8220;The Founder,&#8221; a late-life biopic of the great co-opter of McDonald\u2019s? Now, you may be asking yourself: Why write about this movie in Attorney at Work? Excellent question. It\u2019s because there are law firm management lessons to be derived.<br \/>\nThe post Arch Villain: 5 Business Lessons for Lawyers from \u2018The Founder\u2019 appeared first on Articles, Tips and Tech for Law Firms and Lawyers.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Some tough law firm business lessons for lawyers can be derived from Michael Keaton\u2019s portrayal of Ray Kroc in The Founder.<\/i><\/b><strong><em> Just ask Grimace.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"exemag-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ifNsV8G4b-U?si=92MOoB_ZkyuskQqx\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-yoast-seo-table-of-contents yoast-table-of-contents\">\n<h2>Table of contents<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.attorneyatwork.com\/ray-kroc-business-lessons\/#h-finding-the-founder\" data-level=\"2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Finding \u201cThe Founder\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.attorneyatwork.com\/ray-kroc-business-lessons\/#h-1-you-have-to-get-lucky\" data-level=\"2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">1. You have to get lucky.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.attorneyatwork.com\/ray-kroc-business-lessons\/#h-2-people-won-t-like-what-you-re-doing\" data-level=\"2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2. People won\u2019t like what you\u2019re doing.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.attorneyatwork.com\/ray-kroc-business-lessons\/#h-3-you-have-to-want-it-more-than-anything-or-anyone-else-nbsp\" data-level=\"2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3. You have to want it more than anything (or anyone) else.\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.attorneyatwork.com\/ray-kroc-business-lessons\/#h-4-it-s-not-always-about-being-nice-nbsp\" data-level=\"2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">4. It\u2019s not always about being nice.\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.attorneyatwork.com\/ray-kroc-business-lessons\/#h-5-you-don-t-have-to-be-an-innovator\" data-level=\"2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">5. You don\u2019t have to be an innovator.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Have you seen the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Michael_Keaton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Keaton<\/a> movie where he plays a bad guy? No, I\u2019m not talking about his excellent turn as the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Vulture_(Marvel_Comics)\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vulture<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uVq6rNTh5l4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">probably the best recent Marvel movie villain<\/a>) in the Spiderman movie.\u00a0Did you see him as Ray Kroc in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Founder\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Founder<\/a>,\u201d a late-life biopic of the great co-opter of McDonald\u2019s?<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group cust-audio-set\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"exemag-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/share.transistor.fm\/e\/54804273\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>I\u2019m a sucker for historical drama, so when this movie came out, I was genuinely excited to see it. If you haven\u2019t seen it, watch it (it\u2019s on Netflix now), because I\u2019m going to talk about it below.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think there are such things as spoilers for movies based on actual events,\u00a0but if you don\u2019t know the story of Kroc\u2019s pilfering of McDonald\u2019s, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketplace.org\/2017\/02\/09\/business\/ray-kroc-mcdonalds-fast-food\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here\u2019s a good rundown<\/a>. The movie largely follows the real-life script, but my references below are to the movie.<\/p>\n<p>Now, you may be asking yourself: Why write about this movie in Attorney at Work? Excellent question. It\u2019s because there are law firm management lessons to be derived. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.attorneyatwork.com\/fly-like-eagle-manage-law-firm-like-frey-henley\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I\u2019ve done this before<\/a>.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.attorneyatwork.com\/lawyer-lessons-buried-in-the-x-files\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trust me<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-finding-the-founder\"><strong>Finding \u201cThe Founder\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Here are five business lessons lawyers can take away from \u201cThe Founder.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-1-you-have-to-get-lucky\"><strong>1. You have to get lucky.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/luck-real\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luck is a real thing<\/a>. If you look at the folks who make it big, luck often plays a larger-than-expected role. John Lennon and Paul McCartney randomly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment\/music\/la-et-ms-beatles-john-lennon-paul-mccartney-first-meeting-20170705-story.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">met at a church social<\/a>. Tom Brady might never have seen the field if Mo Lewis hadn\u2019t almost killed Drew Bledsoe. All kinds of products you use every day\u00a0were invented by accident. In \u201cThe Founder,\u201d the McDonald brothers just happen to order an unusually high number of mixers from a salesman named Ray Kroc, which leads to Kroc\u2019s discovery of their innovative business model. Sure, he is curious enough to investigate \u2014 by driving halfway across the country to California. But if he was selling vacuum cleaners instead of blenders, we\u2019d likely never have heard of Kroc, or of McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Before Kroc came into the picture, the McDonald brothers were having trouble selling their new walk-up business model to customers. Most of the fast-food restaurants at the time were drive-ups, where people would sit in their cars and honk for service. Then, one day, a random kid walked up and ordered his food from the window; one McDonald brother convinces the other to serve him, other customers line up behind the kid \u2026 and an American dynasty is born. If that boy never wanders up to the counter, maybe McDonald\u2019s goes out of business. So, while it\u2019s better to be lucky <em>and<\/em> good, it\u2019s best to be lucky.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-2-people-won-t-like-what-you-re-doing\"><strong>2. People won\u2019t<\/strong> like what you\u2019re<strong> doing.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Whenever you try to do something new or different, haters gonna hate. McDonald\u2019s original customers hated the new system until they figured it out. Of course, what\u2019s interesting is how quickly, once they achieve a certain level of success, the McDonald brothers\u2019 priorities change, as they move from innovation to traditionalism, in order to try to protect themselves and their business.\u00a0But this often happens where founders take great pride in what they\u2019ve created and cling to it like a well-worn blankie. Success is the great softener.<\/p>\n<p>In the movie, the brothers love their system, as it exists. Once they fall in with Kroc and he begins to push the envelope again \u2014 revisiting franchising, introducing a milkshake mix \u2014 the brothers grow more and more uncomfortable. Why?\u00a0They had become comfortable with the model <em>as it was\u00a0<\/em>and stopped thinking about the model <em>as it could be<\/em>.\u00a0By the time Harry Sonnenborn delivered Kroc his second greatest stroke of genius \u2014 the Franchise Realty Corp., an entity that owns the real estate upon which new franchises are built \u2014 the McDonalds had spent too much time grousing behind the scenes to effectively overturn what had become a hostile takeover.<\/p>\n<p>And, that\u2019s the thing. What they don\u2019t tell you about upsetting people in business is that, sometimes, what you need to do to succeed will make <em>you<\/em> uncomfortable. As a small-business owner, <a href=\"http:\/\/redcavelegal.com\/2017\/04\/28\/lawyers-comfort-zone-is-danger-zone\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">you must embrace that discomfort and use it to drive your business forward<\/a> \u2014 or someone else will.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-3-you-have-to-want-it-more-than-anything-or-anyone-else-nbsp\"><strong>3. You have to want it more than anything (or anyone) else.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The McDonald brothers were comfortable carving out a small place in the world\u00a0and running the best little hamburger stand in San Bernardino, Calif. Kroc, however, would not stop until he built an American colossus. And it\u2019s clear from the start that was his vision. By the end of the movie, it\u2019s revealed that one reason he didn\u2019t outright steal the McDonald\u2019s system was that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7FxHY-vLMgs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he knew no one would buy hamburgers on a large scale from a restaurant called Kroc\u2019s<\/a>.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BlauUsOQJYM\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">He compares the golden arches to crosses atop churches, and American flags flying from flagpoles<\/a>.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=n5uadToINEY\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">He does not care whether milkshakes are made from ice cream or powder, so long as they can be made cheaply<\/a>\u00a0and sold in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2rCTuXAbyTI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mass quantities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There is a general recognition that big payoffs in business require big risks. Kroc embraces that; he can\u2019t put a second mortgage on his home quickly enough. He is consumed with making McDonald\u2019s a leviathan. He saw its true potential and was relentless in his follow-through, no matter who stood in his way.\u00a0At the beginning of the film, Keaton\u2019s Kroc is listening to a fictionalized version of \u201cThe Power of Positive Thinking,\u201d repeating the mantras over and over again. The underlying message is that positivity is ultimately grounded in a willingness to never give up.\u00a0That central theme reflects the driving force of the movie, and of Kroc\u2019s life: that never giving up, that persevering, will ultimately cause the world to yield your way.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile has-background\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"770\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.attorneyatwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LLN-Logo-770-x495.jpg?resize=770%2C495&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-100042916 size-full\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-tune-in-legal-late-night-with-jared-correia\"><a href=\"https:\/\/feeds.transistor.fm\/legal-late-night\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Tune In: \u2018Legal Late Night\u2019 with Jared Correia<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>Jared Correia\u2019s new weekly podcast is a pop-culture-infused romp through the latest and greatest business ideas and tech tips, featuring engaging guests and constructed in the format of an old-school TV variety show.\u00a0Catch the latest on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0Rkik0LLMaU6u0e7AKfK9h?si=9ea93ba230054d16\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/legal-late-night\/id1809201251\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apple<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCZO71dMbPZJWAKWw_-qrRRQ\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>\u00a0or your favorite app.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-4-it-s-not-always-about-being-nice-nbsp\"><strong>4. It\u2019s not always about being nice.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>So, here\u2019s the thing: Ray Kroc was kind of a dick \u2014 even if \u201cThe Founder\u201d establishes that point at its own pace.\u00a0He\u2019s the salesman\u2019s salesman.\u00a0The deal goes down his way; everything else is secondary. The list of people Kroc screws over could appear at the front of \u201cThe Iliad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But there isn\u2019t anyone in the story who gets a rawer deal than the hapless McDonald brothers: See Dick and Mac lose a gold mine through lack of effective action.\u00a0In the movie, Dick recognizes that Kroc is bad news (he describes him as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AX2uz2XYkbo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a wolf in the henhouse<\/a>), but brother Mac won\u2019t act against the usurper, assuming (despite much evidence to the contrary) it will all work out for everyone in the end. Well, it works out for someone. Kroc appropriates the McDonald\u2019s system, the golden arches, founds the Franchise Realty Corp., starts sending powdered milkshake mix to franchisees, breaks his original contract with the brothers, and finally <a href=\"http:\/\/ew.com\/movies\/2017\/01\/20\/michael-keaton-the-founder-favorite-scenes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rolls up on Mac\u2019s hospital bed (when Kroc-induced stress has resulted in heart problems) and offers to buy McDonald\u2019s.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You already know the brothers relent. For their trouble, they each receive checks for $1.3 million. A handshake deal is also made for a small percentage of profits, to be received in perpetuity.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.historyvshollywood.com\/reelfaces\/founder\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Of course, Kroc reneges on that handshake deal. <\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.historyvshollywood.com\/reelfaces\/founder\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Then, for the coup de gr\u00e2ce, Kroc opens a restaurant across the street from the brothers\u2019 original location and puts them out of business\u00a0<\/a>\u2014\u00a0finally sticking the garden hose into their waiting mouths.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody\u2019s saying you have to go scorched earth, next-level evil to build a successful business. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WOHPuY88Ry4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">you\u2019ve got to be tough<\/a>. At least tougher than the McDonald brothers.\u00a0And please: No handshake agreements!<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-5-you-don-t-have-to-be-an-innovator\"><strong>5. You don\u2019t have to be an innovator.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThe Founder\u201d stands for the proposition that successful business people don\u2019t have to have the best ideas \u2026 if they can steal the best ideas. There\u2019s this tired notion of disruption that has taken hold in many business circles; the perversion of the original concept of disruption stands in for the argument that you must come up with completely novel methods that will turn your business vertical on its head, or it\u2019s not even worth trying. The assumption is that new ideas are truly novel, which they never actually are.<\/p>\n<p>The McDonald brothers did not <em>invent<\/em> a fast-food system; they <em>improved <\/em>on the existing fast-food system. They did not build the American fast-food infrastructure brick by brick or start from scratch. But somebody had to be meticulous about it, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jTageuhPfAM\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dick McDonald was<\/a>. Kroc stole his improvement, but if there was a disruptor in the equation, it was Kroc. He was the one who forcefully carried their vision to its apex. Perhaps Kroc wasn\u2019t the innovator but he <em>caused<\/em> the innovation.<\/p>\n<p>Had the McDonalds been Kroc\u2019s employees, nobody would think twice about his appropriation. But, since it was a business-to-business relationship, it\u2019s easy to think that one party was taken advantage of by another. In the final analysis, though, the McDonalds, in many ways, allowed themselves to be taken advantage of by a more serious business person.<\/p>\n<p>And you know what? That\u2019s how the world works.<\/p>\n<p><small>Illustration \u00a9iStockPhoto.com<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jared Correia | Have you seen Michael Keaton movie where he plays Ray Kroc in &#8220;The Founder,&#8221; a late-life biopic of the great co-opter of McDonald\u2019s? Now, you may be asking yourself: Why write about this movie in Attorney at Work? Excellent question. It\u2019s because there are law firm management lessons to be derived. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}