Teacher: "Study or you'll flip burgers for a living", Son: Invents Five Guys

I just ate my favorite burger I just ate a small cheeseburger at some point my other my other favorite burger is a burger with ketchup and mustard and another one is just a burger with nothing but raw onions

five

guys

it was a hole in the the wall that never advertised and refused to deliver to the pentagon in the early days, today is widely known as America's favorite burger chain and one of the fastest growing in the country, and it all started with a student who was told that if he didn't

study

enough, he would make a

living

flip

ping ham

burgers

.

Jerry Merle was born into a middle class family in Alpena Michigan while he was growing up. His father wasn't there much. He was more interested in being an adventurer than being family-oriented, so Jerry's mother supported the family financially and divorced her father. Early in his marriage, away from home, Jerry faced other struggles: if you don't

study

enough you'll end up

flip

ping ham

burgers

, and no one at his Catholic school noticed at the time that a man by the name of push him didn't seem like a bad idea in his town. up Tony's had a little burger joint next to his cat and he always seemed happy to have a grill and he didn't sell anything except burgers, people used to come from all over the city to buy burgers there, still Jerry didn't sell them.

I ended up flipping burgers as the nun expected. Instead, he graduated high school and studied art at Alpena Community College. He then managed to transfer to the University of Michigan to obtain a degree in economics. I got scared there. I said my God, how am I going to do it? In this world with all these smart people around and feeling like an outcast, Jerry was struggling to get by, he had no money and no place to stay, so he worked in the dorms, managed the frat kitchen, and even worked in a restaurant for himself. . business had a magical quality, he often thought he would rather be there than in class in his last year of college, he had even more reasons for his parents to pass away, luckily he still managed to graduate and get his degree in economics, but he continued to face many ups and downs.

He returned to his hometown. He got a job selling life insurance. He married his high school sweetheart and had three sons named Matt Jim and Chad, but the marriage did not last. Jerry's wife moved to Florida and took the kids. With her it was one of the lowest points of Jerry's life. he floated from city to city and wasn't sure what he was going to do next. In the end, little by little he began to understand things in Washington. They offered him a consulting job and he became a financial planner. Later, the financial planner moved to Alexandria, where he met his second wife, Janie, meanwhile, Jerry couldn't stop thinking about his children; he hoped to not only meet them, but also keep them under his own roof, as well as being a financier. planner, started a few different businesses, started an oil business in Texas and did a couple other dumb things.

I tried to start a water business of all things. I thought selling bottled water back then would have been a good idea and everyone laughed at me. In a difficult time, it wasn't until Jerry's children were close to attending college that he came up with a billion-dollar idea. One day,

five

guys

, Jerry approached his wife Janie with a new business idea: let's open a restaurant and only serve hamburgers. and fries he suggested: are you crazy? the genie replied jerry didn't see it like that he remembered how he and the kids would visit ocean city and see dozens of places that sold french fries on the boardwalk, among them there was a place called thrashers that always had a line that served nothing but fries fried, but they cooked them well with high-quality potatoes and peanut oil, which impressed me.

I thought a good burger and fries place could do it. Jerry knew he couldn't do it alone, so he enlisted the help of his sons Matt. Jim and Chad neither of them wanted to go to college, so he used the money saved for tuition and put it toward the restaurant. It was enough to find a place with a low rent, but it couldn't be just any place. Jerry insisted. He would be out of the way and it would be difficult to find that way if people came. He knew he was right when it came to his menu.

Jerry didn't spend hours trying to find the best products, he gave his kids the final say. None of them had any idea that their best options were the most expensive jerry and Janie thought it was best not to tell them how much they were paying to avoid compromising quality, since for potatoes it was the only product Jerry picked by hand. from the same person as thrashers a small potato trader named ricky miles three days before opening jerry was still working as a stock and bond trader and had to stay at a hotel in pittsburgh for a meeting inside his hotel room hiding on a table at night there was a book about Billionaire J.W Marriott Jerry picked it up and discovered that he had turned a root beer stand into a chain of fashion stores, all before opening a hotel in the book.

JW shared that anyone can make money in the food business as long as they have a good product, a reasonable price, and a clean place. At that time, Jerry promised to make sure his customers knew he cared about them and the quality of their food. , that's why the decoration is so simple, red and white tiles, we don't spend our money on decoration or chickens. suits, but he'll go overboard with the food In 1986, the Moraleses opened their first store in Arlington, Virginia, using old equipment they rebuilt themselves, they simply called it Five Guys to represent Jerry, his three sons and another son along the way, It was in the middle of nowhere. there was no parking and no seats for customers to sit and eat so it was no surprise that when they opened at 11 they had no customers, finally one person came in and at 12:30 the restaurant was full, the murals generated Profits.

On its first day open, while some called them crazy for selling burgers that cost three times as much as McDonald's, the restaurant did well, even the Pentagon called to place a delivery order, but Murals rejected their request afterward, Jerry and Matt bought a long banner that said absolutely no deliveries and hung it in front of his store. From then on businesses picked up the murals showed that many Americans were done with frozen and microwaved food products and were willing to pay more for quality a few years later, jerry. He decided it was time to open a second location despite his background in finance and his initial success.

He had a hard time raising money. I remember going to the bank and they told me: "You're going to do what I said, I want to put in another one." hamburger place and it was just that they laughed at us the banks called jerry crazy for competing with mcdonald's and burger king and refused to lend him money for a new store fortunately matt and jim came up with an idea their friend's parents had a He knew that five guys were doing well, so they decided to ask each of them if they were willing to invest a few thousand dollars in exchange, they would receive a percentage of their gross income at the end of the month.

Matt and Jim's plan worked and in 1989, they opened their second location. Jerry decided to commit to the business full time and quit his job as a financial planner. Janie was upset and told him it was too risky, but Jerry had a feeling the second location would be successful. He was right in 2002. the murals owned five restaurants in northern virginia when they were still getting by they perfected their system that's when the suns came up with a new business idea that would involve higher risks and potentially higher rewards we need to start franchising , they told jerry jerry was totally against the idea that you were originally against the franchise, why, oh, I still am, he didn't think people would be interested or that they would maintain the quality, but like his father, the sons had a feeling that the franchise would be successful as long as they never cut costs, determined to convince their father, they gave him a book called Franchises for Dummies by Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's, they even brought in a former player of the NFL, Mark Mosley, who sold franchises for another company.

In the end, Jerry reluctantly agreed and appointed Mark as his salesman. I'm going to sell this many restaurants within a year. I told them to cut their target number in half if they plan to sell 50, cut it to 25. Jerry insisted that he was terrified the franchise would fail and he could barely sleep. He did not reach the number that Jerry expected, instead he sold 3500 franchises that covered the entire United States in two years. Today, five types expanded to Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and Middle East. It has been voted America's favorite burger chain and is one of the fastest growing. chains in the US in an interview jerry revealed what led to his family's success we have no secrets good food good service this is the story of how a struggling student who doubted himself became known as the king of burgers and built a billion-dollar chain with his family For more inspiring stories and advice from today's most successful leaders, don't forget to subscribe to our channel.