James Cash Penney

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.

The disciplined are free.

The keystone of successful business is cooperation. Friction retards progress.

Honor bespeaks worth. Confidence begets trust. Service brings satisfaction. Cooperation proves the quality of leadership.

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.

The greatest teacher I know is the job itself.

Founding a company is hard. Most of it isn’t smooth. You’ll have to make very hard decisions. You have to fire a few people. Therefore, if you don’t believe in your mission, giving up is easy. The majority of founders give up. But the best founders don’t give up.

I was never involved in arms trading. In the Russian Federation, arms trading is the prerogative of the state.

The greatest teacher I know is the job itself.

We know everything about our clients – if they like their dressing gowns heated, what colour flowers they like, if their chef works left-handed – we know everything and we incorporate it into our work for them.

I’m not looking to be a personal manager.

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

We, we – as I say, we go in and shake up other industries and I think, you know, we do it differently and I think that industries are not quite the same as a result of Virgin attacking the market.

Nobody’s ever called me Sir Richard. Occasionally in America, I hear people saying Sir Richard and think there’s some Shakespearean play taking place. But nowhere else anyway.

Exchange ideas frequently.

Listen – it makes you sound smarter.

Selling is our No. 1 job. Never get away from selling a lot of merchandise personally. The more you sell the more you learn.

I never made any public statements, at least I tried never to make any public statements. I know I don’t do it well, I become very nervous, I forget what it is that I mean to say, I can’t really convey my logic and my thought to the journalists, so I decided this is not my thing, I really shouldn’t be doing it.

When you are in real estate, you are going to make some mistakes.

When most people ask about a business growing, what they really mean is growing revenue, not just growing the number of people using a service. Traditional businesses would view people using your service that you don’t make money from as a cost.

If you love what you do, if you love going to the office, if you really like it – not just say it, but really like it – it keeps you young and energised. I really love what I do.