James Cash Penney

The greatest teacher I know is the job itself.

The best of merchandise will go back to the shelf unless handled by a conscientious, tactful salesman.

Salesmanship is limitless. Our very living is selling. We are all salespeople.

Change is vital, improvement the logical form of change.

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

It is always the start that requires the greatest effort.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

The greatest teacher I know is the job itself.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

No serious-minded man should have time for the mediocre in any phase of his living.

It is only by being bold that you get anywhere. If you are a risk-taker, then the art is to protect the downside.

Mr. Edison was comfortably well off-he was not a money maker.

Machines were devised not to do a man out of a job, but to take the heavy labor from man’s back and place it on the broad back of the machine.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

Success will always be measured by the extent to which we serve the buying public.

While several parties have expressed interest in buying the company, I’m not shopping it, I haven’t sold it and I’m not about to sell it.

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.

We do not hire a man’s history, we hire the man.

I own buildings. I’m a builder; I know how to build. Nobody can build like I can build. Nobody. And the builders in New York will tell you that. I build the best product. And my name helps a lot.

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

Everything I do in life is framed through the view of a businessman. That’s my instinct. If I go into a pharmacy to buy shaving cream, then I’m going to look for the best deal on shaving cream.