Cordia Harrington was tired __( I )__ standing up all day and smelling like french fries __( II )_night. A proper ty developer, she also owned and operated three McDonald’s franchises ∈Illinois, but as a divorced mother __( III )__ three boys, she yearned __( IV )__ a business that would provide __( V )__ her children and let her spend more time __(VI) __ them.
Her aha moment struck, strangely enough, after she was nominated ∈1992 to be on the McDonald’s bun committee. “The other franchisees, all men, thought that was hilarious because of the word bun,” she recalls. “But the joke was on them: They didn’t know the company would be picking me up in a corporate jet to see bakeries around the world. Every time I went to a meeting, I loved it. This was global!”
The experience opened her eyes to business possibilities. When McDonald’s decided it wanted a new bun supplier, Harrington became determined to win the contract, even though she had no experience running a bakery. “You see a tiny crack ∈ the door, and you have to run through it,” she says. “I really believed I could do this.”
Harrington studied the bakery business and made sure she was never off executives’ radar. “If you have a dream, you can’t wait for people to call you,” she says. “So I’d visit a mill and send them photos of myself ∈a baker’s \hat and jacket, holding a sign that said ‘I want to be your baker.’” After four years and 32 interviews, her persistence paid off.
Harrington sealed the deal with a handshake, sold her franchises, invested everything she owned, and borrowed $13.5 million. She was ready to buildthe fastest, most automated bakery ∈ the world.
Reader’s Digest
“Her aha moment” refers to
