James Cash Penney

The Golden Rule finds no limit of application in business.

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.

The art of effective listening is essential to clear communication, and clear communication is necessary to management success.

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.

It was always my practice to train salespeople under my direct supervision, and to treat children with the utmost consideration.

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.

My motto is: Always get even. When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades.

Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.

Good copy can’t be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You’ve got to believe in the product.

Some manufacturers illustrate their advertisements with abstract paintings. I would only do this if I wished to conceal from the reader what I was advertising.

Your business, and your brand must first let people know what you care about and that you care about them.

Success cannot come from standstill men. Methods change and men must change with them.

If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.

The more predictable the business, the more valuable it is.

This is serious business. But it doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun along the way.

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.

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

Luck is always the last refuge of laziness and incompetence.

Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. The primary thing that excites me is the mission. But we have always had a healthy understanding that we need to do both.

My friends are people who like building cool stuff. We always have this joke about people who want to just start companies without making something valuable. There’s a lot of that in Silicon Valley.

I used to be able to read memo’s upside down… It was like going to the college of the entertainment business.