James Cash Penney

My definition of an executive’s job is brief and to the point. It is simply this: Getting things done through other people.

I believe a man is better anchored who has a belief in the Supreme Being.

The Golden Rule finds no limit of application in business.

Salesmanship, too, is an art; the perfection of its technique requires study and practice.

I cannot remember a time when the Golden Rule was not my motto and precept, the torch that guided my footsteps.

Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.

A store’s best advertisement is the service its goods render, for upon such service rest the future, the good-will, of an organization.

A monopoly of jobs in this country is just as bad as a monopoly of bread!

If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter.

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.

Work mixed with management becomes not only easier but more profitable. The time is past when anyone can boast about ‘hard work’ without having a corresponding result to show for it.

On Beverly Hills we paid too much. One hundred per cent, we did over-pay. We didn’t do our research properly.

I have no Napoleonic dream. I’m just hard-working and pragmatic.

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

I don’t make deals for the money. I’ve got enough, much more than I’ll ever need. I do it to do it.

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.

My definition of an executive’s job is brief and to the point. It is simply this: Getting things done through other people.

Two classes of people lose money; those who are too weak to guard what they have; those who win money by trick. They both lose in the end.

[On his first job in the mailroom of William Morris a casting agency] It was the first time in the my life that I thought ‘I can do that.’

You now have to decide what ‘image’ you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.

I quickly figured out [that] the one ability I’d better have is to create relationships.