In 1973, the first Merrick McDonald’s spot in New York had fired up the grills for the first time, and Paul Hendel, a tall, ambitious 16-year-old with a fondness for free fries, was one of the first to put on the golden arches on his uniform.
It was supposed to be a part-time high school gig. That was it. College loomed, Wall Street beckoned, and McDonald’s? That was where you labored so you could earn enough to be able to afford gas money and the occasional record album.
But half a century on, Hendel is still at McDonald’s. And, of course, he is not working the counter. He has 31 franchises in Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, including the flashy, high-turnover Times Square store.
“I never imagined having my job forever,” Hendel, 66, told CNBC Make It. “But I also cannot imagine working elsewhere.”
The Job That Everyone Wanted
In the early ’70s, McDonald’s wasn’t merely a fast-food restaurant; it was the place to work if you were a teenager. The vibe was cool, the grub was plentiful, and showing up to work a shift meant you were in.
“Believe it or not, you needed to have an ‘in’ to be hired,” Hendel recalled. His brother, who was already employed in the kitchen, vouched for him. That got him the job for $1.85 an hour, a pretty good deal for a teenager with bell-bottoms.
Hendel was not supposed to stay on the job for a long time. He was headed off to college at C.W. Post University (now known as Long Island University), where he would major in business and wind up working with his father at a brokerage house on Wall Street.
And then there was the conversation.
The First Big Fork in the Road
Hendel was going to hang up his visor in 1975, just before college. That was the year that he received an offer he couldn’t refuse: McDonald’s was opening a new restaurant in Glen Cove, 30 minutes away from his hometown. Would he be an assistant manager?
It wasn’t in the plan, but tuition and textbooks weren’t going to fund themselves. So he stayed.
“I had to skip a couple of parties and wasn’t too pleased about it,” Hendel acknowledged, “but to be able to graduate debt-free and with actual management experience? Priceless.”
He was the general manager of his own shop at the age of 21.
When he graduated from college in 1980, Hendel was at another crossroads on the road. His father’s Wall Street kingdom was still an option. It was tempting with the promise of status, perhaps greater riches, and the golden allure of Manhattan finance.
McDonald’s had other plans, though.
Do You Like What You Do?
At the moment Hendel was on the verge of quitting, his then-employer, Peter Hunt, did something unexpected.
“He said, ‘Don’t go, I don’t want you to go,’ and he gave me a promotion to oversee five facilities, a raise, and a company vehicle came with that,” Hendel said.
Hendel was torn but unsure and consulted his father. During dinner, his father asked him with just two questions:
- “Do you like what you do?”
- “Are you any good at it?”
When Hendel answered “yes” to both, his father gave him advice that he never forgot:
“Paul, if that’s what you like to do, and you’re good at it, stick with it because I’m not crazy about my job or commuting into Manhattan every day.”
That conversation cleared any doubts he had about his future.
From Crew Member to McDonald’s Empire
Before 1990, Hendel owned and operated his first McDonald’s franchise in Brooklyn. He did not remain there.
“Since then, I’ve acquired another restaurant roughly every year,” he said.
Now with 31 locations and a few hundred workers, Hendel continues to work five days a week. He spends much of his time in the stores talking with associates, troubleshooting, and overseeing any work that is being done.
If you think that kind of empire makes him hands-off, you’re wrong. Hendel still enjoys being in the trenches.
“It’s about people. You have to be people-focused when you’re dealing with employees and serving over a thousand customers a day per store,” he said.
And after all these years, there is one thing that remains constant: his default order is still a quarter pounder with cheese.
So Why Hasn’t He Retired?
For most, 50 years of work with a single brand would be a sign that it’s time to slow down and play golf full-time. Hendel isn’t there yet, though.
“Is it truly working if you’re doing something you love?” he asked.
Yes, there are boats to be launched and grandchildren to be chased after, and golf can be a blast, but “retired” is not a designation Hendel is eager to place on his name tag.
“I would prefer to be more flexible,” he said. “But I don’t want the ‘retired’ immediately next to my name.”
The future remains in capable hands, though. His son Mark and daughter Lauren joined him in the family business, becoming franchisees in 2019 and 2022, respectively.
Why McDonald’s Was the Right Call After All
Looking back, Hendel might have gone the Wall Street route. The suits, the stocks, the commute on the subway train. But he bet on fries and the fast lane.
As it turned out, that decision wasn’t merely one of familiarity or convenience; it was also good in the financial sense.
ZipRecruiter estimates that owner/operators at McDonald’s can earn up to $400,000 per year. Times that by 30 years and 30+ restaurants, and you’re looking at a career with some serious potential earnings.
For Hendel, though, it was never just about the money. “The possibilities here at McDonald’s are endless,” he stated. “I’ve seen people who started as crew, then progressed to owner/operators in a matter of years and became millionaires.”
A Career Built on Burgers and Backbone
And what has kept Hendel going all these years? It’s not the fries (though he wouldn’t refuse a basket). It’s not the title. It’s not the money.
It’s the satisfaction of building something from the ground up.
Another way that all of this experience was valuable for him was that he was able to help young people launch their careers, just as his former boss had helped him. Of course, the clearest example of this was watching his kids carry the torch.
And maybe, just maybe, it’s about demonstrating that sometimes the work you do “just for now” will be the work you continue to do forever.
Will Paul Hendel ever retire from McDonald’s? Don’t count on it. Not yet.
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