Ray Kroc

The segment in Leading Lives That Matter about three biological sketches is very interesting because it gives insight on three very different lives and journies. The first one I read was about Ray Kroc, founder of the fast food restaurant McDonalds. Now the actual story about his life is just what the main title suggests, a biography. It details the span of his life, how he came up with the idea, what McDonalds is like today, and so on. The interesting part however comes with the introduction to the three stories.

It says that Kroc was a typical "rags to riches" guy and asks the question if you would admire him more because of this. Do people admire these lives more than those who have been healthy their entire lives? Kroc did work his way up and became very successful. The story talks about his multiple jobs, many having nothing to do with his business, and how he finally got his break. I have never thought about this, but I do suppose that people admire the ones who fought for something rather than had it come naturally. However, don't the ones that have it come naturally also have to work hard at one point? In America, we love the underdog. We always want a story to fight for and come together about. Ray Kroc is your typical American story that has the nation cheering for him and not for someone like Paris Hilton.

Another story mentioned is about a young woman, Iris Chang, who was a Chinese-American writer and became interested in China's "Nanking Incident" after hearing about it. She wrote a vivid book on the mutilations and grieving stories that occured in Nanking in order to inform the public. Her work was considered to controversial and not credible, which caused Chang to be upset. Chang eventually killed herself perhaps feeling as though she had done too little. The question here after this story, is posed as asking is a life that is short-lived, yet self-sacrificial, more worthy than one that is long and 'comparatively undistinguished'?

In both cases for Kroc and Chang, there were qualities and benefits of their lives that made them better. It was fast food restaurants for Kroc and history for Chang. I believe that this has much to do with one's quality of living. If you can have a splendid life with the qualities that you work for or on then life will only be satisfying by the conclusions you find.