James Cash Penney

Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement.

I cannot remember a time when the Golden Rule was not my motto and precept, the torch that guided my footsteps.

It is always the start that requires the greatest effort.

Salesmanship, too, is an art; the perfection of its technique requires study and practice.

It is the service we are not obliged to give that people value most.

My definition of an executive’s job is brief and to the point. It is simply this: Getting things done through other people.

I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs.

I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn’t really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.

In Moscow I feel most comfortable. I’m used to four different seasons; it’s difficult for people in London to understand. People brought up in Russia like my kids want to play in the snow.

We get real results only in proportion to the real values we give.

Well, I think that there’s a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you’re likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.

I live on a plane. I like to visit London. If I had to think where I could live if not Moscow, London would be my first choice, and second would be New York. In Moscow I feel most comfortable. I’m used to four different seasons; it’s difficult for people in London to understand. People brought up in Russia like my kids want to play in the snow.

One client didn’t want to go out so had us build him a nightclub in his house.

You should consider an employment change before you consider selling out.

I never went to business school. I was just bumbling through a lot of my life. I was like the guy behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

You now have to decide what ‘image’ you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.

See what a 25-cent raise will do to us, said Mr. Ford. So they figured the daily and monthly cost of a 25-cent increase. Put on another quarter and see what that will cost, he said. And so they went on, 25 cents a step. Finally the wage of $2.34 stood at $4.75–more than 100 percent increase. One of the associates–a good financial head–remarked rather sarcastically that if they were going to be fools, why not be first-class fools and make it $5. All right, said Mr. Ford, let’s make it $5.

The way I run my business seems to be easier than the way I run my life.

The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning; to create a product or service to make the world a better place.

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.