The Founder [2021] Today

Founders are often characterized by "productive delusion." To start a company, one must believe—often against overwhelming evidence to the contrary—that they can succeed where others have failed. This borders on narcissism, but it is a necessary narcissism. Without an unshakable belief in one's own reality distortion field, no investor would write a check, and no employee would leave a stable job to join a risky venture.

History is littered with Founders who were fired by their own boards. Why? Because they refused to stop acting like a Founder. They kept rewriting code when they should have been managing managers. They kept making gut decisions when the data demanded rigor. The Founder

Siegel’s script is notable for what it doesn’t do: it never makes Kroc a cartoon. He genuinely admires the McDonald brothers at first. He offers fair deals—initially. The tension arises from watching a fundamentally decent vision get consumed by a fundamentally ruthless operator. The dialogue crackles with subtext, especially in the climactic confrontation over a handshake agreement. Founders are often characterized by "productive delusion