[Narrator] My name is Alex Berman
and you're watching Selling Breakdowns.
Ray Kroc is the founder of the McDonald's restaurant empire
and the subject of the film, The Founder.
In this video we'll run through
the story of the film, compare some scenes
to real life and demonstrate that many
of Ray Kroc's actions were fueled
by a psychological disorder called maladaptive daydreaming.
The main symptom of this disorder
is the ability to live an extremely rich dream life
that to the dreamer can seem even
more real than reality.
That disconnect is what fueled Ray Kroc
to succeed in business and drive many
of the strange decisions he made in the film.
Kroc seemed prone to fantasy from an early age.
First, dropping out of high school to form a band,
then soon after faking his age to enlist
in the World War I effort.
This same tendency towards fantasy
may have even led him to marry
his high school sweetheart, Ethel Fleming,
against his family's wishes, launching him
into his lifelong sales career.
Kroc spent much of his time on the road
during his adult life and Ethel was busy
raising their only child, daughter Marilyn.
This is where we find Ray in The Founder.
Entrepreneur magazine's Chris Wright said
it's Death of a Salesman, a feeling that seeps out
in the first few minutes, but as Wright points out
it has a very different ending.
One of the first scenes in the film
has Ray drinking in his motel room
and listening to motivational tapes.
This fantasy of success is what kept
him going through the initial 40 years of failure
before finding the McDonald's brothers.
But, as soon as he gets a call from
the McDonald's brothers asking to order
a half dozen milkshake machines,
Ray sees opportunity and heads to California.
Watching as Ray gets completely swept
into the brothers story makes you wonder,
did his bias towards fantasy help him become
a great salesman.
After the initial conversation with the brothers,
he returns to Ethel with a fully formed plan.
Talking about how he found the next Henry Ford.
How the idea is revolutionary
and how he's about to make history.
But Ethel's response is strange.
She isn't excited for him.
It's clear that Ray's come to Ethel dozens
of times before equally as excited.
His maladaptive daydreaming having led
him down a path of delusion.
A near delusional fixation on a goal
is common with disassociative personalities
and Ray's fixation leads him to pitch
the McDonald's brothers multiple times
showing up at their restaurant daily
until they give him the rights to franchise.
We start to see the cracks around the edges
of Keaton's Kroc when his building plan
hasn't been approved by Dick.
The McDonald's brothers ongoing refusal
to change building codes from
their California blueprint is in reality
the reason that the real Kroc gave
for ousting the brothers in the first place
and Ray's anger stems from his daydream
not being realized immediately.
The dream that he runs the McDonald's business.
But we can still sympathize with Ray at this point.
Kroc had traveled the country as a salesman
for 20 years.
He understood commercialism was here to stay
and many of his arguments with
the McDonald's brothers would have improved the business.
When Ray meets Harry Sonneborn he's hitting
another low point in the film.
Sonneborn's plan was for Ray's company
to take control of all the land
under the McDonald's franchises.
This is the move that turned McDonald's
from a restaurant chain into a real estate empire.
The issue is that Ray made the move to real estate
without the brothers consent.
His desperation for a claim and leanings
toward disassociation made him over eager
and not willing to risk rejection
by asking the McDonald brothers for approval.
At the same time his frustration
with Ethel and what feels like
a lack of support has already driven
a wedge between them by the time we meet Joan.
Kroc is a romantic in the film
doing business with Joan, checking in
on her franchises and discussing
new milkshake recipes before finally making
a romantic move.
The real Ray Kroc never spoke much publicly
about his family life.
In fact he was often criticized
for writing a 300 page book without
a single mention of his family.
His daughter had passed away by this time
from complications from diabetes
and after that Joan was his only family.
But perhaps it was omitted because
it didn't fit Ray's daydream.
Disassociative personalities have a habit
of severing ties and Ray's process
of rebranding himself begins with
his divorce from his first wife.
As the business grows the character change
after Kroc's experience with power and control
is off putting, with Ray Kroc yelling
at the brothers, hanging up and threatening them
and it's meant to be.
Kroc earned the reputation of
an absolutely brutal business man.
One of the most shocking lines in the film
is a real quote from Ray Kroc.
"If any of my competitors were drowning,
I'd stick a hose in their mouth
and turn on the water."
The final step in severing ties
with his previous life is removing
the McDonald's brothers from the company
by paying each one off with a million dollar check
he takes full control of the business.
In reality Dick and Mac McDonald
never actually complained about
the deal they received from Ray.
In fact they were known to happily display the check.
But in the film Ray builds a McDonald's
across the street from their original restaurant
forcing it out of business in a final petty move.
Kroc himself lived for another 25 years
as the founder of McDonald's and husband
of Joan Kroc and his death in 1981
was linked with alcohol abuse.
Self medicating through alcohol
is a common coping mechanism
for people dealing with mental illnesses
like maladaptive daydreaming.
In the end the question remains,
was Ray Kroc experiencing a psychological disorder
throughout much of his life
and if so did his tendencies towards
maladaptive daydreaming ultimately
lead him to become the persistent character
that usurped a billion dollar business.
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