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

i just had my favorite burger i just had a little plain cheeseburger sometime my other my other favorite burger is a plain hamburger ketchup mustard on it and another one is just a plain hamburger with nothing but raw onions five guys was a hole in the wall that never advertised and refused to deliver to the pentagon in the early days today it's 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 if he didn't study hard enough he'd flip burgers for a living [Music] jerry merle was born to a middle class family in alpena michigan growing up his father wasn't around much he was more interested in being an adventurer than family oriented so jerry's mother supported the family financially and divorced his father early in their marriage outside the home jerry faced other struggles if you don't study hard enough you'll end up flipping burgers and none at his catholic school warned at the time it didn't seem like a bad idea in his town a man by the name of push him up tony's ran a tiny hamburger joint alongside his cat and always seemed happy he had a grill and he didn't sell anything except hamburgers people used to come from all over town to get hamburgers there still jerry didn't end up flipping burgers as the nun expected instead he graduated from high school and studied art at alpena community college afterwards he managed to transfer to the university of michigan to pursue an economics degree i got scared there i said my god how am i going to make it in this world with all these smart people around along with feeling like an outcast jerry struggled to get by he had no money and no place to stay so he worked in the dorms managed the fraternity kitchen and even worked at a diner to him the restaurant business had a magical quality to it he often thought he'd rather be there than in class in his final year of college he had all the more reason to both of his parents passed away fortunately he still managed to graduate and earn his economics degree but he continued to face many ups and downs he moved back to his hometown got a job selling life insurance married his high school sweetheart and had three sons named matt jim and chad but the marriage didn't 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 around from city to city and wasn't sure what he was going to do next eventually he slowly started to figure things out in washington he was offered a consulting job and became a financial planner later he moved to alexandria where he met his second wife janie meanwhile jerry couldn't stop thinking about his kids he had hoped not only to reunite with them but to provide for them under his own roof as well so along with being a financial planner he started a few different businesses i started an oil business in texas and i 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 everybody laughed at me on a hard time it wasn't until jerry's sons were close to attending college that he came up with a billion dollar idea five guys [Music] one day jerry walked up to his wife janie with a new business idea let's open up a restaurant and only serve hamburgers and fries he suggested are you out of your mind genie replied jerry didn't see it that way he remembered how he and the kids would visit ocean city and spot dozens of places that sold boardwalk fries among them was a place called thrashers that always had a line they served nothing but fries but they cooked them right with high quality potatoes and peanut oil that impressed me i thought a good hamburger and fry place could make it jerry knew he couldn't do it alone so he enlisted help from his sons matt jim and chad none of them wanted to go to college so he used the money saved up for their tuition and put it towards the restaurant it was just enough to find a place with low rent but it couldn't be just any place jerry insisted it'd be out of the way and hard to find that way if people came he knew he was on to something when it came to their menu jerry didn't spend hours trying to figure out the best products instead he gave his sons the final say each of them had no idea that their top picks were the most expensive jerry and janie thought it was better not to tell them how much they were paying to avoid compromising quality as for the potatoes it was the only product that jerry hand picked he sourced them from the same person as thrashers a small potato dealer named ricky miles three days before opening jerry still worked as a stock and bond trader and had to stay at a hotel in pittsburgh for a meeting inside his hotel room tucked into a nightstand was a book about billionaire j.w marriott jerry picked it up and discovered he turned an a w root beer stand into a hot shop chain all before opening a hotel in the book jw shared anybody can make money in the food business as long as you have a good product reasonable price and a clean place at that moment jerry vowed to make sure that his customers knew he cared about them and the quality of their food that's why the decor is so simple red and white tiles we don't spend our money on decor or on guys in chicken suits but will go overboard on food in 1986 the morals 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 on the way it was in the middle of nowhere had no parking and didn't have any seats for customers to sit down and eat so it was no surprise that when they opened at 11 they had zero customers eventually one person did walk in and by 12 30 the restaurant was packed the murals made a profit on their first day of opening while some called them crazy for selling hamburgers that cost three times more than mcdonald's the restaurant did well even the pentagon called to make a delivery order but the murals turned down their request afterwards jerry and matt bought a 22-foot long banner that read absolutely no delivery and hung it in front of their store from then on business picked up the murals proved that many americans were done with products made with frozen food and microwaves and were willing to pay more for quality [Music] a few years later jerry decided it was time to open a second location in spite of his finance background and early success he had a hard time raising money i can remember going in the bank and uh they said you're going to do what i said i want to put another hamburger place and it was just they laughed at us 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 bit of extra money and knew five guys was doing well so they decided to ask each of them if they were willing to invest a few thousand dollars in return they would receive a percentage of their gross income at the end of the month matt and jim's plan worked and by 1989 they opened their second location by then 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 gut feeling the second location would succeed he was right by 2002 the murals owned five restaurants within northern virginia while they were still just getting by they perfected their system it was then that the suns proposed a new business idea one that would involve bigger risks and potentially greater rewards we need to start franchising they told jerry jerry was dead set against the idea you originally were against franchising it why oh i still am he didn't think that people would be interested or that they would maintain quality but like their father the sons had a gut feeling franchising would succeed as long as they never cut costs hell bent on convincing their father they gave him a book called franchising for dummies by dave thomas the founder of wendy's they even brought in a former nfl player mark mosley who sold franchises for another company eventually jerry reluctantly agreed and appointed mark as their salesman i'm going to sell this many restaurants within a year mark told them just cut your target number in half if you're planning on selling 50 cut it down to 25 jerry insisted he was terrified that franchising would fail and could barely sleep mark didn't hit the number that jerry expected instead he sold 3500 franchises that covered the entire us within two years today five guys has expanded to canada united kingdom europe asia and the middle east it's been voted america's favorite hamburger 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

Channel: Hook

Views: 1,521,080

Rating: 4.9513617 out of 5

Keywords: story of five guys, five guys story, five guys, how five guys started, how five guys makes burgers, how five guys makes their fries, how five guys burgers are made, how five guys fries are made, how five guys make fries, company man, company man five guys, five guys commercial, the rise of five guys, five guys inventor, five guys founder, behind five guys, who made five guys, success story, success stories, five guys burgers and fries, five guys burgers, five guys fries

Id: R7G91aHiL8w

Length: 10min 17sec (617 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 30 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/RepubMocrat_Party]

Then whose the other 4?