James Cash Penney

The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.

A merchant who approaches business with the idea of serving the public well has nothing to fear from the competition.

Too many would-be executives are slaves of routine.

No company can afford not to move forward. It may be at the top of the heap today but at the bottom of the heap tomorrow, if it doesn’t.

Change is vital, improvement the logical form of change.

I do not believe in excuses. I believe in hard work as the prime solvent of life’s problems.

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.

Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.

Investors are visionaries in some respects – they look beyond the present.

No human wisdom or knowledge could ever be sufficient [for] the duty of superintending the industry of private people … towards the employment most suitable to the interest of the society.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am obliged to will terribly what I will at all.

Leverage: don’t make deals without it!

When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.

Do not primarily train men to work. Train them to serve willingly and intelligently.

If I had asked them what they had wanted, they would have said a faster horse.

I never made any public statements, at least I tried never to make any public statements. I know I don’t do it well, I become very nervous, I forget what it is that I mean to say, I can’t really convey my logic and my thought to the journalists, so I decided this is not my thing, I really shouldn’t be doing it.

Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the prospect.

[on Steve jobs] Our relationship was based almost always on him calling up and asking, ‘Is this a good deal?’ I’m not in his business, and I wasn’t trying to be. I was just a guy who admired him a lot and was flattered he wanted my advice.

In New York and Los Angeles, you can throw your car keys to the valet and he parks it. Same in Hong Kong and Singapore, the service is off the scale. In London it’s sub-standard to abysmal.

London has got better as it’s become more international – you only have to look at the quality of the restaurants to see how improved it’s become.

You should consider an employment change before you consider selling out.