[user104658]

Originally Posted by arista

Yes TS it was the former CEO
that started flipping burgers from the start
I am in Error.

That's fair enough.

However, I would add as a final thought... why do you think there was a documentary about him? It can only be because his story is interesting... and it can only be interesting because it is so uncommon. Very, very few people ever rise through the ranks of a company like that. McDonalds has potentially millions of entry level staff worldwide, and only a handful of top-level positions... the likelihood of achieving that sort of success as someone starting on the bottom rung, is tiny.

You might as well say "buying lottery tickets is thew way to go - someone has to win, right?".

Hard work can play a part but it's a relatively small one when it comes to progression within a company, SO much more of it is down to making the right friends and kissing the right arses, and even more of it is down to simply being in the right place at the right time when an opportunity arises to progress. In other words; dumb luck. The vast majority of enrty-level McDonalds staff will simply never progress much beyond minimum wage (maybe duty manager / assistant manager level... still doesn't pay very well) no matter how hard they work or how good they are at the job.