Great Throughts Treasury

"my paddle to somebody else and let me go out on the road! [?Why, you?re only thirteen and just out of knickers! ? William?s father] But I?m big for my age. [To his father on letting him sell soap on the road rather than simply mixing it.] Give"

"No matter what the condition of a business, never stop advertising."

"Nearly all buyers say ?No!? at first. Real salesmen stick until the buyer has used up his last ?No!?."

"Nobody sold more soap in those parts than I did? Sleigh bells had nothing whatever to do with selling soap. They got me a chance to tell my story."

"No patent plan will sell everybody. One of the biggest things you?ve got to learn is: Don?t treat them all alike."

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. [A sign hung for years above his desk]"

"Office employees are salesmen, in one sense. They have to sell their services to the boss ? or find a pink slip in the pay envelope!"

"People do not buy much from a man who fails to command their respect."

"One of the biggest pests in business is the carbon copy ? the fellow who always says: ?Yes, Mr Wrigley, you?re absolutely right.? Perhaps meaning: ?Have it our own way, you old buzzard, what do I care??"

"People thought when I began to put this up [The Wrigley Building] 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."

"Remember this wrapper. [When Wrigley had a shortage of gum during the war]"

"Restraint in regard to immediate profits. That has not only been our most profitable policy, it has been pretty nearly our only profitable one. [On the secret of his success]"

"Steadies the Nerves. [A Wrigley advertising slogan]"

"Sticking is one of the big things in salesmanship."

"Selling is not easy."

"Success is not easy. But it is worth the price."

"The 5 cent field, has for many years been an important one and we believe it worthwhile on all of our parts to preserve it for the future."

"The art of salesmanship can be stated in five words: Believing something, and convincing others. That is easy to say. But selling is not easy. A salesman has to master himself; 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. Success is not easy. But it is worth the price."

"Tell them quick and tell them often."

"The Catalina?s work is going to be between Los Angeles Harbor and Avalon and I want to see her built in Los Angeles by Los Angeles Shipbuilders. [On building the ship ?The Catalina? in 1923]"

"The trick is to find the star. I spent seven years and $300,000 to learn that the race of big-league stars on third base evidently had been exhausted. [On the Baseball business]"

"The first man I hired when I started selling chewing gum was paid seven dollars and a half a week and pushed a wheelbarrow around town. He never objected to working till any and all hours, if we had to finish up. He has a snug job at the factory now, is foreman of a department, and draws fives times the wages you would expect him to receive?"

"The only product that the baseball business has to sell is goodwill. If you fail to furnish the kind of entertainment that results in general goodwill, you?re out of luck. There?s a catch in this business at every turn, because you?re playing with tricky, variable human nature, not inert physical commodities and mechanical methods? The trick is to find the star. I spent seven years and $300,000 to learn that the race of big-league stars on third base evidently had been exhausted."

"There was a lesson I learned? from Caleb Thornton. Caleb was a Quaker. It was a rainy day when I first called at Caleb?s store, and he had a clerk busy carrying fifty-pound sacks of flour from the back part of the store to the front, arranging them in a neat pile. ?All done!? the man said presently. ?Very well,? replied Caleb; now thee may carry them all back and pile them where thee found them.? The man immediately got red around the collar. He wanted to know what was the sense of doing that. 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.?"

"There is no such thing as getting a business so established that it does not need to advertise."

"There?s a catch in this business at every turn, because you?re playing with tricky, variable human nature, not inert physical commodities and mechanical methods? [On the Baseball business]"

"There was a time when the Cubs were in red ink to the extent of almost half a million dollars. It doesn?t require much imagination to realize how such a deficit would have affected an owner interested only in the financial outcome of the undertaking. But it didn?t faze me, because I didn?t go into baseball for the purpose of making money; that motive was so secondary that it was given little consideration. I stuck because I loved the game itself and wished to contribute to its progress and its greater enjoyment by the American people. It?s a satisfaction to me to believe that I have, to a very considerable extent, accomplished this. Not only are the admissions to Wrigley Field 1,000,000 more than they were when I bought the team, but the attendance has come to include all classes of people. [On purchasing a minority interest in the Cubs baseball team in 1915 and buying control in 1919, holding it until he passed away in 1932]"

"They were missing something that looked to me tremendously like an extraordinary opportunity, because so few people were advertising at that time. [On being able to turn the company from a small local business into a national one in the depression of 1907 because they advertised when their competitors did not]"

"There?s no use leaving a baseball team to the tender mercies of an estate, or to be managed by a bank or trust company."

"When two businessmen always agree, one of them is useless."

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

"Wrigley brands woven into the fabric of everyday life around the world."

"You?re already heavily interested, you know what it?s all about. And there?s no use leaving a baseball team to the tender mercies of an estate, or to be managed by a bank or trust company. That would surely kill it off. [To his son P. K (Philip) Wrigley (who already was buying Chicago Cubs (Baseball team) stock for himself) when he set up the provision in his will on leaving all of his Chicago Cubs shares to himself. (At the time P.K Wrigley was the third largest shareholder of the team and William Wrigley himself the largest shareholder)]"

"We don?t want to do business with anybody who loses money on us. [You can?t win long-term at the expense of business partners.] [On tearing up contract when a vendor said he?d lose money because Wrigley had made himself such a good deal]"

"We have spent more than $20,000,000 to tell the world about our product. I believe in advertising all the time. There is no such thing as getting a business so established that it does not need to advertise. 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. Dull times are the very times when you need advertising most."

"We had had plenty of talks. Just such talks as I have with anybody who has business in my office. Both doors wide open all the time. Anybody else who has some business item he must see me about at once is free to come and go, no matter who my caller is. No delay. Walk in, get it done, get out. No important transactions held up for the awful ceremony of seeing the boss ? when the boss isn?t seeable! I explained this to Hartley. ?When these people come in here,? I said, ?they aren?t doing it to interrupt you. They?re carrying on this business. If they hear a word or two of our conversation, that?s all right. 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. [On meetings with an overseas sales representative complaining that they were always being interrupted by employees]"

"What?s your superstition? [On being asked about religion]"

"When I was traveling among the tall-grass towns of Pennsylvania selling soap for my father, I used to drive a four-horse, six-spring wagon painted bright red, with a collar of sleigh bells on each horse. One horse would have been plenty to haul me. The bells were a great nuisance, for they chafed the horse?s necks, and if it was six or eight miles between towns, I always took them off. But when I put them on again and drove jingling up to a store; everybody inside would rush out to see what the circus was; most of them had never seen a six-spring wagon before. Nobody sold more soap in those parts than I did. Bunk? Yes! Sleigh bells had nothing whatever to do with selling soap. They got me a chance to tell my story. [Later when successful he always rode in bright red limousines]"