Popularity: -1
Vote:   | A man is successful in proportion to the extent to which he encourages men to develop themselves. It really takes a big man to believe in other men, to entrust one's affairs to them, and having done so to discharge anxiety from the mind. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | A man of integrity is a man of sterling character; one whose word is as good as his bond would not think of taking a minute of time that did not belong to him; a man honest with himself. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | A man who cannot make a mistake cannot make anything. If a man will profit by his mistakes, he can turn them to good account. Men are not infallible. But mistakes may and can contribute their part to a man's education. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | A merchant who approaches business with the idea of serving the public well has nothing to fear from the competition. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | A store's best advertisement is the service its goods render, for upon such service rest the future, the good-will, of an organization. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | All motion does not mean progress. Not mere motion, but progress - going ahead with something - is the requirement in the attainment of the larger task. |
Popularity: -2
Vote: | Anniversaries mean more to me than just the actual recurrence of a date. Anniversaries should really be inventory-time - when we can strike a balance in our life ledger and appraise ourselves for a new beginning. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | As a rule, we find what we look for; we achieve what we get ready for. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Business is no longer a matter of profits alone. Profits must come through public confidence, and public confidence is given to any merchant in proportion to the service which he gives to the public. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Business never was and never will be anything more or less than people serving other people. People who sell serve those who buy, and vice versa. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Change is vital, improvement the logical form of change. |
Popularity: -2
Vote: | Character is simple in its essence, but its force penetrates into every act of a man's life, because it first penetrates every phase of his thought. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Clock watchers never seem to be having a good time. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Competition is no enemy, it is an ally, and when translated into service, it is a constant spur to betterment through more service and thus benefits all. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Dealing with the public offers one of the greatest opportunities for education there is. Every customer is different. Each one demands personal attention along the lines of his preferences and individual viewpoint. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | Determine to do some thinking for yourself. Don't live entirely upon the thoughts of others. Don't be an automaton. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Do not primarily train men to work. Train them to serve willingly and intelligently. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Every man must decide for himself whether he shall master his world or be mastered by it. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Everything we do, everything we have ever done, has one purpose: to sell more merchandise, to make it easier and more pleasant for the customer to buy. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Exchange ideas frequently. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Experience long ago convinced me of the fact that people like to trade at that store which has its stock in good order; and besides, no man's stock is worth one hundred cents on the dollar that is not kept every day in the best possible condition. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | From the beginning my experience in storekeeping taught me that little things - the atoms in the molecule of the principle - mark good salesmen and good service. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Future development in a man depends greatly upon his early training. We should emphasize the beginning of a career because the beginning is the foundation of everything worthwhile. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Giving the best you've got-and helping your fellow work to his best-that's teamwork. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Has business a soul? Has it any quality or characteristic by which it lives, thrives, and grows to majestic proportions? If there are things that disrupt and destroy business, there are also things that establish and perpetuate business. The soul of business is confidence. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Honesty wins... the finer honesty that will not allow a man to give less than his best; honesty that makes him count not only his hours but his duties and opportunities; honesty that constantly urges him to enlarge his information and increase his efficiency. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Honor bespeaks worth. Confidence begets trust. Service brings satisfaction. Cooperation proves the quality of leadership. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I believe a man is better anchored who has a belief in the Supreme Being. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | I believe in trusting men, not only once but twice-in giving a failure another chance. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I believe that the Penney Company was a pioneer. From the very beginning, we stressed, and emphasized, as we do today, that the individual can grow, develop, and be rewarded only to the degree that he contributes to the growth and development of his fellow workers and of the community in which he lives. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | I cannot emphasize too strongly that you are representatives of the company and mould public opinion for good or ill. Let that thought govern your every contact with the public. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | I cannot remember a time when the Golden Rule was not my motto and precept, the torch that guided my footsteps. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I do not believe in excuses. I believe in hard work as the prime solvent of life's problems. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I had far rather have it said of me that I have provided an opportunity for many young people to go ahead in business than to have it said that I had built up a big business. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I learned that all things come to those who wait-provided they hustle while they wait. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | I never expect to see a paradise on this earth; but if men would be thoroughly unselfish and loyal to one another, we should then approach a degree of perfection that has not yet been attained. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | I never feel sorry for poor boys. It is the children of wealth who deserve sympathy; too often they are starved for incentive to create success for themselves. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I never trust an executive who tends to pass the buck. Nor would I want to deal with him as a customer or a supplier. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I was long brought up to think that it was nothing short of a crime to miss a sale. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I was particularly interested in the idea of keeping the store sold out of old stock. It meant something more to me than merely the cash tied up in the odds and ends of slow-moving merchandise. It was the belief that good merchandise need never stay unsold. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | If the history of the unsuccessful businessmen of the world could be read, I believe that the element of discourtesy would be one of the contributing factors in their failures. |
Popularity: -2
Vote: | If you would succeed in business, be friendly. I have always believed that the better acquainted you are with your customers, the better you can serve them. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | In an organization, men are selected who are best qualified to fill specific needs. If they prove themselves fully adapted to their lines of work, they become specialists and competent advisors. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | In every man's life there lies latent energy. There is, however, a spark, if kindled, will set the whole being afire, and he will become a human dynamo, capable of accomplishing almost anything to which he aspires. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | In the J.C. Penney Company, from the beginning, we have visualized customers as our neighbors, whom it is our neighborly privilege to assist toward buying what they need and want at the lowest fair prices. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | It is also highly desirable to know competing lines of goods in order that the salesman may be able to compare-never odiously, but intelligently, with the line he is selling. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | It is always the start that requires the greatest effort. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | It is not my ambition to have the biggest chain of stores in the world, but the best; and also, the most loyal group of storefolks one can find anywhere. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | It is the service we are not obliged to give that people value most. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | It was always my practice to train salespeople under my direct supervision, and to treat children with the utmost consideration. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | It was never our thought primarily to train men to work; rather to train them to serve, willingly and intelligently. It is not really creative to train men merely to obey orders, which they may or may not fully understand. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Life is tremendously full and rich, and it really rests with us how much we get out of it. There is but one way. We get back in riches in proportion to what we give. The great thing to learn, then, is to give. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Like the coach of a football team or the maker of a watch, the executive has the responsibility for making his group-as well as himself-function in harmony with the rest of the organization. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Luck is always the last refuge of laziness and incompetence. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Men are not great or small because of their material possessions. They are great or small because of what they are. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Methods change when the awkward process gives way to the congenial and direct. Men change when they drop habits that impede them and take on new ones that give them more skill, greater speed, and clearer vision. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | My definition of an executive's job is brief and to the point. It is simply this: Getting things done through other people. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | My whole life has been given to the selection and training of young men and young women; they have built our stores; they must carry on. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | No business can succeed in any great degree without being properly organized. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | No company can afford not to move forward. It may be at the top of the heap today but at the bottom of the heap tomorrow, if it doesn't. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | No matter how much we may believe otherwise, man's chief joy is in creative work. When denied the self-expression of constructive effort men are unhappy. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | No matter what his position or experience in life, there is in everyone more latent than developed ability; far more unused than used power. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | No one measures up to the present opportunity until he has put his BEST into each operation every day. It may not be easy to do but it is well worth the price. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | No serious-minded man should have time for the mediocre in any phase of his living. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Nothing is more fatal in this merchandising profession or in life than to set up some accomplishment and say that it is perfect. The moment a man does that, he begins sliding backwards on a greased way. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | One of the great reasons for our success is that it is not the vision of one man, nor the results of one man's efforts; it is the result of many men cooperating, coordinating and working for one common aim. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | People are the principal asset of any company, whether it makes things to sell, sells things made by other people or supplies intangible services. Nothing moves until your people can make it move. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Perhaps I can take just a little of the credit for establishing one idea that we have built into our business through the years. That is: getting the merchandise out where customers can see it, touch it, want it. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Permanent business growth can be acquired only by giving full value in your particular field. As a retail merchant, I learned that the majority of people expect value and recognize it when they get it. And they return for more of the goods that give value. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Personal service must go with value. Take an interest in the other person's problems. That is the way to let your customers know how much you value their trade. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Progress is the law of the universe; it is the law of economic life. The minute a company ceases to progress, it starts to fall back. Competition is so keen today that if a company stands still for one year - changeless in a changing world - it may never again be able to catch up with its competition. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | Responsibilities are given to him on whom trust rests. Responsibility is always a sign of trust. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Responsibility makes or breaks a man. He will either rise to the heights by reason of it, or be crushed by the weight of it. Thus care should be take that responsibility is not forced on a man before he is ready for it. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Salesmanship is limitless. Our very living is selling. We are all salespeople. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Salesmanship, too, is an art; the perfection of its technique requires study and practice. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Selling is our No. 1 job. Never get away from selling a lot of merchandise personally. The more you sell the more you learn. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Since the biggest part of your job as an executive consists in getting things done through people, it will pay you to learn how to become a good listener, if you aren't one already. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | So far as the Penney Company is concerned, ourfirst consideration is due to our customers. For without their confidence, we should soon find ourselves playing a losing game. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Someone has said that genius is only the capacity for hard work. I believe it thoroughly. One can succeed in life if he knows how to develop his natural resources. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Success cannot come from standstill men. Methods change and men must change with them. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Success will always be measured by the extent to which we serve the buying public. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | That 90 percent of all who venture into retail distribution should fail is a disgraceful commentary upon the primitive state of retail merchandising. Each year thousands of untrained men waste the community's substance opening new stores, trusting to blind luck for success. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The art of effective listening is essential to clear communication, and clear communication is necessary to management success. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | The best of merchandise will go back to the shelf unless handled by a conscientious, tactful salesman. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The company which uncompromisingly adheres to the practice of furnishing full value for the price advertised builds tremendous confidence for itself. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | The disciplined are free. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The effective display of goods always has occupied a good deal of my thought. Eye appeal draws the customer into the store; when he is inside the store, it must be maintained, as an incentive to purchasing. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | The element of competition for business has always struck me as a sort of plant food, a healthy nutrient stimulating the roots of enterprise and putting out new shoots of vigorous growth. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | The five separate fingers are five independent units. Close them and the fist multiplies strength. This is organization. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The friendly smile, the word of greeting, are certainly something fleeting and seemingly insubstantial. You can't take them with you. But they work for good beyond your power to measure their influence. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | The Golden Rule finds no limit of application in business. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | The greatest misfortune that can befall a man is to be placed in an advanced position without having earned the experience below it. Business progress is like climbing a ladder. It is be ascended rung by rung. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The greatest teacher I know is the job itself. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | The highroad of a lifetime is often a long stretch. If you will be true to the laws of the game, life will fight for you. It will not make the day's work easy. But it will make it possible. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | The J.C. Penney Company is not so much a chain of stores as it is a chain of men held together by an idea. Every manager has immediate jurisdiction over the store he operates as a responsible partner. We do not work for one another, we work with one another. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The J.C.Penney Company has succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of my early days because of its policy of employee participation; and because it has been toward the public, giving in exchange for customers' dollars the utmost in value. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The keystone of successful business is cooperation. Friction retards progress. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | The law of struggle is the essence of all life-animal, vegetable and human. Struggle marks our progress from birth to death. When we cease to struggle dry rot sets in. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The mastery of the factual details that enter into manufacture and sale of good merchandise is as important to the equipment of a merchant as the mastery of materials is to the engineer. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | The measure of our progress in civilization is the degree to which we bring our economic motivation into harmony with our ethical aspirations. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | The men who have furnished me with my greatest inspiration have not been men of wealth, but men of deeds. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | The one great enemy of employee morale is boredom-monotonous, humdrum work. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The problem with the bronco is to get on and stay on. This is the problem with the Golden Rule-to understand and apply. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | The store that sells its wares for less but pays little attention to the service it renders does not meet with the success of the store with courteous employees. The public is not greatly interested in saving a little money on a purchase at the expense of service. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The strength and swiftness of our growth as a Company was due to the knowledge that none of us could succeed alone, that the success of each of us depended upon the success of every man and upon his contribution to the success of his community. We know that we must rise or fall together. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | The thing, I believe, that has kept America from being a stagnant nation is free competition. Without it I do not believe we can survive as a nation. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | The thought in my mind was that I must be a good merchant. If I were a good merchant, the rest would probably take care of itself. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The well-rounded person has three distinct powers - physical, mental, and spiritual. The development of any one at the expense of the others will cause a man to be one-sided, whereas through the development of all three, the man becomes a truly rounded individual. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | The well-satisfied customer will bring the repeat sale that counts. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The years ahead will bring new merchandising problems into our business. New standards will be developed. In countless ways, changes will be everywhere in evidence. The men who succeed will continue to be those who work hard and without watching the clock. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Theory is splendid but until put into practice, it is valueless. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | There has never been a time when a career in the Penney Company was not a challenge that brought out the best in a man. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | There is always danger of our becoming smug and self-complacent. The man, who after making his pile, is content to sit back and rest on his laurels will never build a greater J.C. Penney Company. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | There's no better friend to any merchant than a fair competitor. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | To me the word retirement hints at inactivity, a slackening hold on the reins of living. In that sense, I don't believe in retirement. I do most certainly believe in a change of activity, when it becomes time for what is commonly called retirement. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Too many would-be executives are slaves of routine. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | We can serve our customers well only if our buying jobs are right. You cannot sell if you haven't ordered wanted goods into your store. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | We do not leave the building of our bridges or the care of our bodies to men without training. We demand men of character who have mastered the accumulated knowledge of their professions. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | We get real results only in proportion to the real values we give. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | We will buy only good merchandise to sell our customers. Because of all the advantages that will be ours, we will sell for less and never will we sacrifice quality for an unreasonable low price. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | What I tell you here about the Penney Company is equally true of other chain store organizations. Their very survival depends upon their taking a responsible place in the community and of serving customers with honest values in dependable merchandise. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | When a man is connected with a successful organization, in which he becomes interested, he soon learns that he must act in harmony with his associates, for without cooperation, organization is impossible. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | When I see a mediocre lot of store people I know that the manager is mediocre. If he is alert and up-to-date he employs the same kinds of folks. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | When this business was founded, it sought to win public confidence through service, for it was my conviction then, as it is now, that nothing else than right service to the public results in mutual understanding and satisfaction between customer and merchant. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Whether it was a woman's glove or a miner's shoe, I crowded in all the value I could-tried to see how good an article I could sell for the price. The Company has always maintained that policy. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | With each sale we have two chances to make a good impression on the customer: one when we present to him in the store clean, attractive stock to buy; the other when the parcel is opened at home and the favorable impression created in the store is confirmed, generating the will to return to trade with us again. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | You all know that it isn't always easy to judge the comparative values of goods by appearance and feel alone-quality shows up in the long-range use, and that's what brings customers back to the store that has given them well-built merchandise at a fair price. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | You've got to know how to handle people, how to motivate them. How to get them, so far as possible, to do the things you want them to do because they want to do them. Hard? I should say so. |