I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern world.
Like a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns.
Edison, to a greater extent than has ever been recognized, is the father of American industrial methods.
While I love technology and social media, a text or a tweet can never replace the real value of conversation.
Listen it makes you sound smarter.
Good copy can’t be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You’ve got to believe in the product.
The keystone of successful business is cooperation. Friction retards progress.
This is serious business. But it doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun along the way.
In the long run people are going to buy the cheapest and the best article no matter where it is made.
If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.
The best way to make money in business is not to think too much about making it.
Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.
Although Mr. Edison was called ‘The Wizard’ of the electrical world and everyone thought that electricity was the coming thing, he actually encouraged me to go with my second car.
Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.
I was the most productive when I was in a flex situation. Do not check for me for needless meetings.
Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.
[In 1990 on the president of MCA calling and saying ‘We’re going to make you the biggest offer this company has ever made, and I’m going to send it to you by messenger right now.’] It’s 1990. Send me a fax.
There are good examples of companies – Coca-Cola is one – that invested before there was a huge market in countries, and I think that ended up playing out to their benefit for decades to come.
Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.
My dream was to have a steady job, was not to be on the road, to exist like a guy that goes to work as a mechanic or a carpenter and knows he’s gonna have a job.
The headline is the ‘ticket on the meat.’ Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising.
