I always kind of see how I want things to be better, and I’m generally not happy with how things are or the level of service that we’re providing for people or the quality of the teams that we built. But if you look at this objectively, we’re doing so well on so many of these things. I think it’s important to have gratitude for that.
I built a great company, one of the – some of the most iconic assets in the world, $10 billion of net worth, more than $10 billion of net worth, and frankly, I had a great time doing it.
Competition is the lifeblood of industry.
If you need a machine and don’t buy it, then you will ultimately find that you have paid for it and don’t have it.
The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years.
…capitalism does live by crises and booms, just as a human being lives by inhaling and exhaling.
We do not hire a man’s history, we hire the man.
Selling is our No. 1 job. Never get away from selling a lot of merchandise personally. The more you sell the more you learn.
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.
In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.
I have had the top people in the world into One Hyde Park, and they have seen everything and they say there is nothing quite like this.
I believe in trusting men, not only once but twice – in giving a failure another chance.
A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.
I’ve been making deals all my life.
Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak.
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.
I’m not looking to be a personal manager.
I get my design inspiration from Christian Dior and Chanel.
Theory is splendid but until put into practice, it is valueless.
The great need of the world has always been for leaders. With more leaders we could have more industry. More industry, more employment and comfort for all.
The more predictable the business, the more valuable it is.
