Shaq Had 155 Five Guys But No Idea What He Was Doing—So He Called the McDonald’s Manager Who Once Took Care of Him…What Happened Next is Wild

When retired NBA player and entrepreneur Shaquille O’Neal decided to invest in Five Guys as a franchisee owner, he elected to take on an unexpected partner: a McDonald’s manager. Photo via Instagram, @shaq Franchising 101 ”When I was playing here in Orlando, there was a guy at the McDonald’s,” O’Neal shared during an appearance at the Aspire Tour business development conference in Orlando last June. ”He was the manager, and he always took care of me. “Didn’t really have the cash to branch out. So I said OK, I already got the plan. I’m gonna take him, I will make him a partner, he’s gonna run it.” O’Neal went on to own 155 locations of the Five Guys franchise with his partner managing the spaces. Problem is at first Shaq had no idea how to run the Five Guys restaurants. In a video shared by entrepreneur Andrew Cordle during the Aspire Tour, Shaq recalled how he got into the burger business by chance. “One day a guy came up to me and said, ‘Hey man, I’m starting this thing called Five Guys,’” Shaq said. “I was like, ‘What’s Five Guys?’ He’s like, ‘Burgers. I wanna offer you equity in the...