The story of McDonald’s is a cautionary tale for trusting greedy businessmen. Richard and Maurice McDonald founded the original McDonald’s in 1940 in San Bernardino, California. In the 1950s, businessman Ray Kroc was fascinated by their assembly line-style burger production, as well as their use of only paper bags and wraps to serve their meals (most fast food joints still served food on ceramic plates).

Kroc expanded McDonald’s exponentially, but ran into conflict with the McDonald’s brothers when they refused to compromise on quality to cut costs. So, Kroc, contractually unable to make the final business decision in a building with the brothers’ name on it, instead bought the land under the restaurants. Now he could call the shots, and McDonald’s soon had frozen patties and powdered milkshakes. The McDonald brothers walked away with $1 million each and Croc went on to become worth $600 million when he died in 1984 (that’s $1.4 billion today, adjusting for inflation).