YouSaid · the spoken record

William Rosenberg

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2022-02-12
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2022-02-12
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  1. “Couldn't believe the business it did. The smell of those freshly made donuts and the business that small donut shack generated left an unforgettable impression on me. So this is happening, I want to say like six to seven years before he found Dunkin' Donut. And then he mentions multiple times in the book that you can't, like there's a large contingent of humanity that is just completely negative and you have to ignore them. Really, he's talking about ignore the naysayers. If you remember last week, and I referenced the fact that Arnold Schorsinger was mentored by Lucy O'Ball and that she gave him advice when he was in his early 30s that he would repeat four decades later. And so from his autobiography, I think this is founder's number 141, if I remember correctly.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Vending machines, the ice cream trucks. This guy had his hand in all kinds of stuff that I'm omitting, but he also at the same time is like, I don't want you to leave I'll give you a promotion. So he says, Harry had asked me to come back to Boston and take the job as a national sales manager. Now I had two big opportunities. My head was spinning. And it's always fascinating when you're reading these life stories and these stories of people's careers that span over multiple decades, how like the idea will be there usually, like they'll sum upon the idea. It sits in the back of their mind for a while. And so remember, Dunkin' Donuts comes after this industrial lunch service that he's going to start, but during the war, he's serving at Hingham Shipyard. And there's a spot by the shipyard, and it's just a little donut shop, a retail donut shop. And so he says it had donut the little town, had a donut shop that sold fresh hot donuts. The place was always mobbed.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “An opportunity, he said, Bill, we need to set up a complete system to feed all of our employees. I would like you to take it over and run it. So this is the idea. Other companies are going to do this, right? This is the idea that he's going to use to launch his first business after. He's got to serve at a shipyard, which I'll get to in a minute, though. His boss that he was working for that was doing...”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “About what you can do for them. And so that is why you always start. Bill's discovering that quirk of human nature when he's selling to factories as well. So remember that idea where he's like, hey, if I saw somebody doing something that was shining shoes, selling ice cream, whatever, I was like, okay, I can figure out how to do it as good or better than them. So this is during World War II. He's going to take a detour because he's got to serve the country. But before that, there's a regulation that's passed because you have to amp up the production of all the American factories. And this is going to lead people to open businesses like crafty entrepreneurs to open businesses to serve this need. And this is where he's like, oh, I can do this too. So he gets approached and says, soon after the government decided that companies that wanted to be big producers had to set up cafeterias in their factories to feed their workers. The government rightly felt that people working around the clock should be fed properly. I had already become great friends with the senior vice president at one of these factories, and so he comes to approach him. He says, now because the war effort he approached me”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “why, in my opinion, he should install the vending machines. He didn't have any at the time, and I told him how it was an advantage to the employees and no cost to him, and how we would pay him 2% of gross sales. I sold him the account. This was the very first big factory we installed. I was very proud. I learned an important lesson about sales. You don't sell to people. You get people to buy from you. You say to yourself, if I were in their position, why would I want to buy this product that I have to sell? If I was in their position, why would it be to my benefit? And so the idea that you start, you always start with the benefit of the customer. This is something you and I have learned from people like Albert Lasker, Claude Hopkins, David Ogovey, all those people built fantastically successful advertising businesses on the principle that the most your most important job is what benefit are you going to promise the customer? People are self-absorbed. They do not care about your company.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “And so the entrepreneur that he's working for that owns all these ice cream trucks has to diversify his business because in the winter no one's really buying ice cream. So he has this idea. He's like, listen, I'm going to start off a vending machine company and we're going to stock cigarette and candy machines inside a factory. And there's a ton of factories in New England at the time. And so this is where Bill learns how to overcome fear. And then he has a really good perspective that he learns for sales because he considers himself a master salesperson. And so he is learning on the job here because these sales skills and then pitching ideas to factories to companies that own the factories is also going to give him a jump in his first business, the business that he owns before he does Dunkin' Donuts. And he says in the beginning, it took a lot of nerve to go into a big factory. The first time, I must have driven around the block six or seven times before I got enough Moxie to park and go inside. I went in and asked to talk to the industrial relations man. He was the vice president. I sat down and explained”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “I wonder what it would be like to have a day off. Look at all those people going away to lakes and camps to enjoy the holiday. I've never had that in my life. I've always had to work. I wondered what it would be like to go out on a holiday and enjoy myself and have fun instead of having to work. In those days I just never took any days off, Sundays and holidays were the busiest days of my year. I was feeling sorry for myself that day. I was down in the dumps, hoping that someday I'd be able to enjoy myself like those people, not realizing that that time would come when I could.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Like sandwiches, pastries, coffee. And then we realized how much of his business is coffee and like donuts in the morning. That idea leads him to like, well, how much money could you make if instead of a truck, right? If I just went direct to customers and I actually had a store that sold donuts and coffee. And so that's why I mentioned earlier, like he's like, listen, I'm a lifelong learner. I know that I don't know everything. And so I'm just constantly keeping my eyes and ears open, looking for new opportunities. And then I take everything I learned and try to use that to start something new in the future. And so he's working for this ice cream company for a while. He's now 21. I'm fast forwarding the story. He's 21. And he gets a little state of melancholy because he has no free time. He has no, he doesn't have the opportunity for free time. And so he brings his ice cream truck down and he says it was one of the big holidays. It might have been Memorial or 4th of July. I parked my truck on the side of the road. People would stop, buy some ice cream and be on their way. As I stood there, I remember saying them.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “And Bill is willing to work from early morning to late at night. The more success he has, the more excitement he has, and it just kind of feeds on itself. He talks a little bit about that here. He says, whatever my reasons, my lack of education, the circumstances from which I came, I had a fire in my belly, a determination to succeed, a determination to do as best as I could. That striving for excellence started at an early age and has never stopped. The more I achieved, the more I felt I was capable of achieving, the more confidence I gained, all of which helped me reach greater heights. I liked to work and I excelled at it. And this idea of, okay, I'm selling ice cream out of a truck, this becomes really important later on because it indirectly leads to his path for Dunkin' Donuts, because later on he decides, hey, I want to start my own company. And instead of selling ice cream out of a truck, he starts selling things that factory workers would need for like lunch and breakfast.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “So he drops out of school in eighth grade, he starts delivering telegrams, and he thinks it's the best thing ever. He's like, I cannot believe I'm making $15 a week. Some of his other friends are also delivering telegraphs or telegrams at the time. And then one of them jumps to another opportunity.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Never wanted my family to go through the sufferings that our family went through because of a lack of money. Sometimes the best lessons you learn in life are from what you discover in the weaknesses of otherwise good people. So then he gets into why he had to drop out of school and he says, my dad couldn't say no to all his customers he had over the years. So he kept supporting them. This is at the very beginning of the Great Depression. So he kept supporting them and supplying them with food and products. But they simply couldn't pay him. Dad got to the point where he couldn't pay his own bills, and he had to go out of business. I decided I wanted to quit school, go to work, and help support my family. I knew they desperately needed help. We didn't have enough money to live.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “This, sure, I can do it. If someone else can do it, I can do it too. And so one of the issues with his father is that he and his father had a real bad temper and would beat the crap out of him. And so he says, we were close, but we had our problems like everyone else. My father had a violent temper. One time he got so angry with me that he picked me up and threw me through a screen door. And looking back, I think he would identify some of the anger issues with the fact that his father was not happy with the outcome of his life. And Bill mentions being motivated to almost be like for his life to be like the opposite of his father's. He says odd as it may sound. I think one of the best lessons I ever learned from my dad is what he didn't do properly. For all his innate abilities and potential, he taught me what I never wanted to have happen to my family. I learned that my first obligation was to take care of and financially support my family. That was probably the thing that brought us the greatest unhappiness. The fact that we lived in such dire poverty and my father never provided for us although he was capable. I never”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Was doing quite well selling magazines, so it's his other family. So I said to myself, if he can make that kind of money selling magazines, why can't I? So that's how I started selling magazines. If I saw someone shining shoes and they were doing well or better than others, then I would ask, why are they doing so well? Do they have a better location, a better corner, better traffic? The reason I'm reading this to you, and I'm going to interrupt myself here, he applies, again, he's a kid doing this, whether it's selling ice cream, signing shoes, magazines, doesn't matter, opening Dunkin' Donuts locations later on. These questions that he's asking, he does this over and over again. So he says, if I see somebody doing better than other people, I would ask, why are they doing so well? Do they have a better location, a better corner? Do they have better traffic? So I'd say to myself, if that's the case, I have to get myself to a better corner with better traffic and shine suits. I need to smile. I need to make friends without really knowing it. I got into the habit of thinking like a winner. I'd ask myself, can I do this?”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “With an ice pick, we broke off and sold chips of ice for 10 cents apiece. They gave me, at the end of the day, they gave me my share. It was $71. I got home and gave the $71 to my mother, and she cried. What did you do? Why did you steal this? She could not believe that an 11-year-old kid could make that much money in one day. I said, I made it. I made it. She couldn't believe it. $71 was a fortune for us. And then he talks about the stuff he learned from this experience. And this is something he preaches throughout the entire book. You saw he put in the introduction about the power of your mind and having a positive attitude. From an early age, these working experiences taught me that if I put my mind to it and worked hard, I could do whatever I was doing as well or better than most other people. I learned to strive for excellence. And then once he sees somebody else succeeding in adventure, he's like, well, I'm pretty sure I can do better than them. He just has an insane level of confidence. So he says, the older brother who lived next to us.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Even before he drops out of school when he's 14, starts working full time, this is a few years before that happens, he's just always on the lookout for ways to make money. And he learns that it's better to sell something to somebody instead of getting a job because then you're not, the income that you can make is not capped. And so he teams up with some older boys. And at the time, this is around early 1900s, car racing is extremely popular, so they go to a local track in Massachusetts and they just start selling ice cream and water and ice chips. And so now he's looking back at this experience in his life 70 years later and he still remembers it. So he says it was a dirt track and the car's racing around the track kicked up dust. It was dry and dusty and there was no water. I'm skipping over some parts, giving you the punchline here. We charged a quarter for our ice cream. Everybody sold out. To replenish our supply, the two men, the older men that he's working with, drove down and bought two 300-pound cakes of ice and then drove back to the car.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “That was a great lesson he taught me, and I took it to heart. And then this is the first mention that maybe their relationship is not the best. He's going to go into more detail later. So he says, my dad had big ideas for things, but he didn't seem to want to start at the beginning and work up to those goals. As a result, he often failed to obtain them. And he blames his dad essentially for causing the family to wallow in poverty. If you start out setting too high a goal in the beginning, you set yourself up for failure. I applied this principle to all my ventures. When I opened my first Dunkin' Donuts store, I focused on making the first store a success. Then after I did that, I could move on to the second and the third and the fourth. But I gave all my heart and my soul to making that first store a winner.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “She just had a knack for making something out of almost nothing. In the height of the depression she would go down to the fish markets. The fishmongers threw away the heads, tails, and bones of the fish. My mother would get them for nothing and make fish stew. These are the things my mother learned to do, and that I learned to apply in my business. Find solutions under any circumstances. I learned from her that it's possible to create something out of nothing. And so one of these lessons that his father teaches him at a young age is something that we've heard from both Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett. They say, listen, you can't make a good deal with a bad person. And so he's talking about the conversations he's having with his dad. And he says he taught me that there's nothing, nothing in the world you can do to solve the problems of a liar. When people lie constantly or in the habit of lying, you never know where the hell you're going or what you're going to do with them. So in his opinion, being a liar was the worst possible thing.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “My philosophy is this don't reinvent the wheel. Your problem is not brand new. Someone encountered it previously. Find out who solved it best and start where they left off, not where they began. Learn from my experiences and apply my insights to whatever business or venture that you're involved in.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “As I see it, most people do their job, work hard their whole lives, and wonder why things couldn't have been better. That's because a large percentage of the population is full of excuses. They have a negative mental attitude. These are the naysayers. These are the people who would tell you all the reasons why something can't be done. They're the complainers of the universe. Nothing's ever right for them. Then there's the ten percent who overachieve. They're bursting with a positive mental attitude. I've always said that it doesn't take a genius to do what I've done, but it does take passion, determination, and persistence, and above all, a positive mental attitude. All of my life I've been a learner and a teacher. I believe in sharing success and knowledge with others. You will witness these lessons I learned successful tricks of the trade, stories of frustration and inspiration, so that you may follow and do even more.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Life will test you, that's a promise. It's what you do with the challenges that determines your failure or your success. I fought lung cancer in nineteen seventy one. I battled lymphoma six years later. I prepared for my death and got a reprieve. I had three hip replacements. I went through divorce and remarried. Many times along the way to achieving my goals, I ran into roadblocks and made mistakes. The difference is that successful people learn from their errors. We turn pitfalls into windfalls”

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  21. “Complications that might have stopped someone less determined. But I can assure you this if you really want to be successful, you have to be willing to put in the time and effort. Most of the luckiest people I have ever met are the hardest working and most determined winning. Winning takes effort. I started my first company Industrial Lunch Service with one truck, and I built it into a multi state fleet of two hundred trucks and the largest food service business in New England. From there I opened a store called the Open Kettle, selling coffee and donuts. We renamed the store Dunkin' Donuts, and the rest is history. In nineteen sixty, when franchising was in its infancy, most people looked upon it as an outcast or misfit. But I believed it was the epitome of entrepreneurship and free enterprise. In all these ventures I made progress by taking one step at a time.”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Of any successful venture and impart the wisdom gained, the principles and philosophies that have developed over the years, so that you may benefit as well. This is my story, as I see it, of all that led up to the founding of Dunkin' Donuts and its phenomenal growth. It's about everything that I achieved, my personal triumphs and trials, and my multiple bouts with cancer. Take advantage of my experiences and use them to your greatest benefit. Nothing is brand new, whether it's franchising, the internet, or something else that we haven't even considered yet coming down the pike in the future. The basic tenets still apply. My successes came from hard work, born out of determination and risk taking, persistence, innovation, vision, and passion. How did I do it? How did a poor kid who dropped out of school at the age of fourteen to deliver telegrams in the height of the Great Depression become a self made multimillionaire? In all that I accomplished, you will notice I established a method for success that has taken me to the top. I faced obstacles.”

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  23. “Back in the late 1960s, Mario Puzzo, the author of The Godfather, said to me, Bill, I want to write your life story. You've got a hell of a story to tell. I said, thanks, Mario, but I'm too busy right now. I was growing dunkin' donuts, which I had founded in nineteen fifty, and the business was expanding so fast I didn't have time to stop and reflect about my life. I had too much going on. At the heart of things, I'm a man of action. I like results, but Mario's offer tempted me because I had read some of his earlier books and thought he was a fantastic writer. But there's a right time for everything. In the year two thousand, I finally sat down to write this book. At eighty four years old I've had more than enough time to reflect on what works and doesn't work in business and life, and I want to share this knowledge with you. Everything in this book is based on what I know to be true and what I believe to be the facts. It's my opportunity to show you the struggles that are part of”

    2022-02-12 · Founders · #231 William Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin Donuts) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source