Great Throughts Treasury

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

"A man?s doubts and worries are his worst enemies."

"A man?s doubts and fears are his worst enemies. He can go ahead and do anything so long as he doesn?t know he can?t do it."

"Any lady who comes to my ball park with a smile will get in free. [He owned the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field and had 40,000 smiling ladies come breaking records and boosting permanent attendances to the ball games. Any piece of savy marketing for a special ?ladies day? when female attendances were considerably lower than that of their male counterparts]"

"A salesman has to master himself?"

"Aids Digestion. [A Wrigley advertising slogan]"

"Did you find my name anywhere on this building? Did you find any mention of Spearmint in its outside walls? People thought when I began to put this up that I would plaster my name all over it in letters big enough to be seen miles away. If you look when you go out you will find it in small letters over the front door ? but you may have to look twice. As a matter of fact it was better advertising not to plaster my name on the building. People talk more about it. It is the unusual thing ? the thing they didn?t expect me to do. [On building a landmark office building in Chicago in the early 1920s when he was the world?s leading advertiser]"

"Anyone can make gum. Selling it is the problem."

"Babies who never heard about you are being born every day, and people who once knew you forget you if you don?t keep them reminded constantly. [On needing to always advertise]"

"Business is built by men who care ? care enough to disagree, fight it out to a finish, get the facts."

"Chew it but don?t strew it. [On not throwing the chewing gum on the pavement]"

"Double your pleasure, double your fun with? Doublemint, Doublemint, Doublemint gum."

"Dull times are the very times when you need advertising most."

"Even in a little thing like a stick of gum, quality is important."

"Every Chicago baseball fan owns a controlling interest in the Cubs ? in his own mind."

"Eventually, I?ll make up the cost by taking the smallest possible profit from an increased number of visitors. [On investing at least $7 million in Catalina Island after buying it for $3.5 million in 1919.]"

"Every human being is a sample: the only one of his kind. Anybody who starts to sell with any notion is due to have his eyes opened or lose his pants. No patent plan will sell everybody. One of the biggest things you?ve got to learn is: Don?t treat them all alike."

"Every man who ever made good with me as a salesman has been a sticker."

"He can go ahead and do anything so long as he doesn?t know he can?t do it."

"He has to know human nature and like people; he has to be able to stand up and take it on the jaw; he has to stick when they call him a fool for sticking; he has to work hard, late, and long. [On a salesman]"

"Everybody likes something extra, for nothing."

"Everywhere among manufacturers you heard reasons for not advertising, for exercising less than the ordinary selling effort. [In the depression of 1907]"

"He knew how to be loyal. He knew how to do his job and give the best he had. He sold himself to me all right."

"Girl With The Wrigley Eyes. [A Wrigley advertising slogan]"

"Henry could not sell five-dollar gold pieces for seventy-five cents. He just has not got the knack, and would not learn if he lived to be a hundred. But he knew how to be loyal. He knew how to do his job and give the best he had. He sold himself to me all right. [On an employee that he pays five times more than you would expect]"

"I always mapped out some proposition whereby the dealer or jobber would make a mighty good thing. If their profits were big enough they would do all our worrying for us. They would become our salesmen through the natural desire to reap rewards that would come from a large turnover of our products?"

"I am sending you in a tube my picture, done in the latest style and signed by myself. Had to sit up a good many nights to do the signing, but I wanted to make it sort of personal. P.S. ? Busted my hand signing the 12,000 photographs so had to sign this letter with a rubber stamp. [On his personalized periodic letters]"

"Hit ?em hard and hit ?em often. [On product promotion]"

"I believe in advertising all the time."

"I didn?t go into baseball for the purpose of making money?"

"I believe in the other [business] fellow?s right to live. I cannot expect to do well in my business unless he is able to do well in his business."

"I have no secrets. We?re all here to make this business go, and for no other reason. Every time a man walks in or out, I?ve made some more money."

"I cannot expect to do well in my business unless he is able to do well in his business. [On a win-win with business partners]"

"I have sometimes been asked what single policy has been most profitable in our business, and I have always unhesitatingly answers, restraint in regard to immediate profits ? going a bit further with the restraint than we might have gone."

"I loved the game itself and wished to contribute to its progress and its greater enjoyment by the American people. [On Baseball]"

"I managed to control my temper, but I never allowed any man to use me as a common doormat ? not for long. People do not buy much from a man who fails to command their respect."

"I used to drive a four-horse, six-spring wagon painted bright red, with a collar of sleigh bells on each horse?"

"I want a house on a location from which I can see the first rays of the sunrise and the last rays of the sunset. [On building the Catalina estate in 1921]"

"If you fail to furnish the kind of entertainment that results in general goodwill, you?re out of luck."

"In 1902 I decided to storm New York with publicity. I spent $100,000 and hardly made a ripple. It was money dropped into a hole, so far as anyone could see? I tried a third time, after recuperating, and this time with a quarter of a million. I wanted to get the dropped $200,000 back. I did ? plus."

"In no deal did I ever figure our own profit first. That?s the wrong end to start from. I always mapped out some proposition whereby the dealer or jobber would make a mighty good thing. If their profits were big enough they would do all our worrying for us. They would become our salesmen through the natural desire to reap rewards that would come from a large turnover of our products? Then, if the proposition left even a small profit for us, I knew it was sound."

"It?s a rainy day,? said Caleb, ?and there are no customers. I am keeping thee busy. Whether there is any sense in it or not, I pay thee thy wages, and can tell thee to do what I please.?"

"It is the unusual thing ? the thing they didn?t expect me to do. [On being able to produce the best advertising results by going against the herd]"

"It was better advertising not to plaster my name on the building. People talk more about it. [On being a contrarian in his advertising when he built the Wrigley Building]"

"It is precisely by refusing to avoid unnecessary expenses, when the pressure for doing it was very great, that the business has been able to make it?s greatest strides. [Like spending on advertising]"

"In the depression of 1907. Advertising of all sorts had fallen off. Everywhere among manufacturers you heard reasons for not advertising, for exercising less than the ordinary selling effort. The more I thought about the attitude, the more I wondered at it. It was not only that they were not taking advantage of the ordinary opportunities. They were missing something that looked to me tremendously like an extraordinary opportunity?"

"Keeps the Taste in Tune. [A Wrigley advertising slogan]"

"Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack run get your Wrigley stick!"

"Many a man became my good friend and a customer simply because I would not take offense. There was a wild Irishman, I remember, whose main joy in life, it seemed, was to scare salesmen half to death; and he insulted those he couldn?t scare. ?You young whippersnapper?, he snarled at me, ?don?t you know there?s a danged sight more outside your head than there is in it?? He said it with the intention of starting a row. I only grinned. ?I never thought of it just that way before,? I said, ?But I?m darned if I don?t believe you?re right!? It stopped him. He was as vain as Mamma?s only boy. I petted him, asked him to give me advice. And if he is in business today, he probably still has some of the soap I sold him that first trip!"

"Make a good product at a fair price ? then tell the world."