John Rockefeller Quotes

180 John Rockefeller Quotes

(John D Rockefeller Quotes) (Rockefeller Quotes)

It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?"
Henry David Thoreau

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The only thing which is of lasting benefit to a man is that which he does for himself.
John Rockefeller
Do you know anyone who is zealous in their work? He is the equal of kings.
John Rockefeller
The golden rule of success is expansion!
John Rockefeller
Transform failure into success!
John Rockefeller
A friendship born of business is better than a business born of friendship.
John Rockefeller
Good management consists of showing average people how to do superior work.
John Rockefeller
We were accustomed to prepare for financial emergencies long before we needed the funds.
John Rockefeller

Money was worth what it would bring no one would pay 10 percent, or 5 percent, or 3 percent unless
the borrower believed that at this rate it was profitable to employ it.
John Rockefeller
I have made a resolution to let my money work instead of me!
John Rockefeller
I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.
John Rockefeller

The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.
John Rockefeller
Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be ones aim.
John Rockefeller
Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.
John Rockefeller
I would rather hire a man with enthusiasm, than a man who knows everything.
John Rockefeller
Dont be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.
John Rockefeller
A business cannot be a great success that does not fully and efficiently accept and take advantage of its
opportunities.
John Rockefeller
A friend of whatever kind is important; and this one learns as one grows older.
John Rockefeller

To my father I owe a great debt in that he himself trained me to practical ways.

John Rockefeller
The success of one man in any walk of life spurs the others on.
John Rockefeller
When a mans [business] affairs are not going well, he hates to study the books and face the truth.
John Rockefeller

Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? Its to see my dividends coming in.
The only thing that gives me pleasure is to watch the dividends fall.
John Rockefeller
[My philosophy is] discipline, order, and faithful account of all credits and debits.
John Rockefeller
I ascribe the success of the Standard Oil Company to the consistent policy of making its business large
through the merit and cheapness of its products.
John Rockefeller
I believe the power to make money is a gift of God to be developed and used to the best of our ability
for the good of mankind. Having been endowed with the gift I possess, I believe it is my duty to make
money, and still more money, and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to
the dictates of my conscience.
John Rockefeller
Look at the worm on the ground, there on the ground. If I step on it, I draw attention to it. If I ignore it, it
disappears.
John Rockefeller
If you want to succeed, you have to forge new paths and avoid borrowed ones that promise success.
If you want to succeed, you have to forge new paths and avoid borrowed ones
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If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths rather than travel the worn paths of accepted
success.
John Rockefeller
The ability to handle people is a commodity that can be bought like sugar and coffee, and Im ready to
pay more for this ability than for any other on earth.
John Rockefeller
Learn to make numbers talk! They will speak to you about hard truths and also reveal the future!
John Rockefeller
I have ways of making money you know nothing about.
John Rockefeller
The success of one person depends on the success of others.
John Rockefeller

I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance.
It overcomes almost everything, even nature.
John Rockefeller
I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.
John Rockefeller
It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.
John Rockefeller
I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day
to the making of money for moneys sake.
John Rockefeller

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity an obligation; every possession, a
duty.
John Rockefeller
I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
John Rockefeller
There is no mystery in business success. If you do each days task successfully, and stay faithfully within
these natural operations of commercial laws which I talks so much about, and keep your head clear, you
will come out all right.
John Rockefeller
If you only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.
John Rockefeller
Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.
John Rockefeller
The task is simple. We will organize children and teach them in a perfect way the things their fathers and
mothers are doing in an imperfect way.
John Rockefeller

[On asking a workman soldering the tops on metal barrels how many dots of solder were used. Forty
was the reply] Have you tried thirty-eight?
John Rockefeller
Probably in the life of every one there comes a time when he is inclined to go over again the events, great
and small, which have made up the incidents of his work and pleasure
John Rockefeller

If one talks about ones experiences, there is a natural temptation to charge one with traveling the easy
road to egotism; if one keeps silence, the inference of wrong-doing is sometimes even more difficult to
meet, as it would then be said that there is no valid defence to be offered.
John Rockefeller
If a tenth of the things that have been said are true, then these dozens of able and faithful men who have
been associated with me, many of whom have passed away, must have been guilty of grave faults.
John Rockefeller
It is only reasonable that the public should have some first-hand facts to draw from in making up its final
estimate.
John Rockefeller
I am so busy that no day is long enough.
John Rockefeller
It is not always the easiest of tasks to induce strong, forceful men to agree.
John Rockefeller
The men who have been very successful are conservative, since they have much to lose in case of
disaster. But fortunately there are also the aggressive and more daring ones, and they are usually the
youngest in the company, perhaps few in number, but impetuous and convincing. They want to
accomplish things and to move quickly, and they dont mind any amount of work or responsibility.
John Rockefeller
Its a pity to get a man into a place in an argument where he is defending a position instead of considering
the evidence. His calms judgment is apt to leave him, and his mind is for the time being closed, and only
obstinacy remains.
John Rockefeller
Ill take it, and supply this capital myself. If the expenditure turns out to be profitable the company can
repay me; and if it goes wrong, Ill stand the loss.
John Rockefeller

It is always a question in every business just how fast it is wise to go

John Rockefeller
We went pretty rapidly in those days, building and expanding in all directions. We were being confronted
with fresh emergencies constantly. A new oil field would be discovered, tanks for the storage had to be
built almost over night
John Rockefeller
Some of us wanted to jump at once into big expenditures, and others to keep to more moderate ones. It
was usually a compromise, but one at a time we took these matters up and settled them, never going as
fast as the most progressive ones wished, nor quite so carefully as the conservatives desired, but always
made the vote unanimous in the end.
John Rockefeller
Some of us wanted to jump at once into big expenditures, and others to keep to more moderate ones. It
was usually a compromise
John Rockefeller
[On H. M. Flagler single handedly building up the East Coast of Florida] It was to be expected of such a
man that he should fulfill his destiny by working out some great problems at a time when most men want
to retire to a comfortable life of ease.
John Rockefeller
One man, by his own energy and capital, has opened up a vast stretch of country, so that the old
inhabitants and the new settlers may have a market for their products.
John Rockefeller
When a refinery was to be put up, it should be different from the flimsy shacks which it was then the
custom to build. Every one was so afraid that the oil would disappear and that the money expended in
buildings would be a loss that the meanest and cheapest buildings were erected for use as refineries.
John Rockefeller

He always believed that if we went into the oil business at all, we should do the work as well as we knew
how; that we should have the very best facilities; that everything should be solid and substantial; and that
nothing should be left undone to produce the finest results.
John Rockefeller
Old mens tales can hardly be interesting to the present generation, though perhaps they will not be
useless if even tiresome stories make young people realize how, above all other possessions, is the value
of a friend in every department of life without any exception whatsoever.
John Rockefeller
How many different kinds of friends there are!
John Rockefeller

I was always a great borrower in my early days; the business was active and growing fast, and the banks
seemed very willing to loan me the money.
John Rockefeller
I learned to have great respect for figures and facts, no matter how small they were.
John Rockefeller
Of all the profitable things which develop quickly under the hand, I have thought my young [tree]
nurseries show the greatest yield I was amazed not long ago at the increase in value that a few years
make in growing things
John Rockefeller
We make a small fortune by selling at $1.50 or $2.00 each, trees which originally cost us only five
or ten cents
John Rockefeller
We were so successful that we became rather reckless
John Rockefeller

[On his father] He taught me the principles and methods of business.

John Rockefeller
When I was seven or eight years old I engaged in my first business enterprise with the assistance of my
mother. I owned some turkeys and sold them all in business-like fashion.
John Rockefeller
[On his first role as a bookkeeper] The firm conducted a business with so many ramifications that this
education was quite extensive. They owned dwelling-houses, warehouses and buildings which were
rented for offices and a variety of uses, and I had to collect the rents. They shipped by rail, canal, and
lake. There were many different kinds of negotiations and transactions going on, and with all these I was
in close touch.
John Rockefeller
[On being told as a bookkeeper to flippantly pay a bill just received.] I had trained myself to the point of
view doubtless held by many young men in business today, that my check on a bill was the executive act
which released my employers money from the till and was attended with more responsibility than the
spending of my own funds. I had made up my mind that such business methods could not succeed.
John Rockefeller
[Before the age of 21] It was a great thing to be my own employer.
John Rockefeller

Think of it, a bank had trusted me for $2,000! I felt that I was now a man of importance in the
community.
John Rockefeller
Business came in upon us so fast that we hardly knew how to take care of it, and in the first year our sales
amounted to half a million dollars.
John Rockefeller

I was afraid I could not stand my prosperity, and tried to teach myself not to get puffed up with any
foolish notions.
John Rockefeller
[On his father lending him money and charging him 10% interest and sometimes saying My son, I find I
have got to have that money.] Of course, you shall it at once, I would answer, but I knew that he was
testing me, and that when I paid him, he would hold the money without its earning anything for a little
time, and then offer it back later.
John Rockefeller
[On his father being disciplined when lending money to his son for his business] I confess that this little
discipline should have done me good, and perhaps did, but while I concealed it from him, the truth is I
was not particularly pleased with his application of tests to discover if my financial ability was equal to
such shocks.
John Rockefeller
One can hardly realize how difficult it was to get capital for active business enterprises at that time.
John Rockefeller
To judge the character of all the members of a great organization or the organization itself by the actions
of a few individuals would be manifestly unfair.
John Rockefeller
It has been said that I forced the men who became my partners in the oil business to join with me. I would
not have been so short-sighted.
John Rockefeller
[On developing Standard Oil and expansion throughout many countries in the world] Do you think this
trade has been developed by anything but hard work?
John Rockefeller
This plan of selling our products direct to the consumer and the exceptionally rapid growth of the
business bred a certain antagonism
John Rockefeller
10

We did not ruthlessly go after the trade of our competitors and attempt to ruin it by cutting prices or
instituting a spy system. We had set ourselves the task of building up as rapidly and as broadly as possible
the volume of consumption.
John Rockefeller
We had to create selling methods far in advance of what then existed
John Rockefeller
None of us ever dreamed of the magnitude of what proved to be the later expansion. We did our days
work as we met it, looking forward to what we could see in the distance and keeping well up to our
opportunities, but laying our foundations firmly.
John Rockefeller
Looking forward to what we could see in the distance but laying our foundations firmly.
John Rockefeller
Capital was most difficult to secure, and it was not easy to interest conservative men in this adventurous
business. Men of property were afraid of it
John Rockefeller
The enterprise being so new and novel, on account of the fearfulness of certain holders in reference to its
success, we frequently had to take stock to keep it from going begging, but we had such confidence in the
fundamental value of the concern that we were willing to assume this risk.
John Rockefeller
There are always a few men in an undertaking of this kind who would risk all on their judgment of the
final result, and if the enterprise had failed, these would have been classed as visionary adventurers, and
perhaps with good reason.
John Rockefeller
There are always a few men who would risk all on their judgment of the final result
John Rockefeller

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If there is any better function of business management than giving profitable work to employees years
after year, in good times and bad, I dont know what it is.
John Rockefeller
Every time we succeeded in a foreign land, it meant dollars brought to this country, and every time we
failed, it was a loss to our nation and its workmen.
John Rockefeller

To succeed in a business requires the best and most earnest men to manage it, and the best men rise to the
top.
John Rockefeller
The corporation in form and character has come to stay that is a thing that may be depended upon.
John Rockefeller
The day of individual competition in large affairs is past and gone you might just as well argue that we
should go back to hand labour and throw away our efficient machines
John Rockefeller
The chief advantages from industrial combinations are those which can be derived from a cooperation of
person and aggregation of capital.
John Rockefeller
Much that one man cannot do alone two can do together
John Rockefeller
If the business grows or can be made to grow, more persons and more capital must be taken in.
John Rockefeller
It is too late to argue about advantages of industrial combinations. They are a necessity.
John Rockefeller

12

The great economic era we are entering will give splendid opportunity to the young man of the future.
John Rockefeller
We had to hew our own paths along new lines We had little experience to go on. Capital was most
difficult to get
John Rockefeller
[In 1909] The men of this generation are entering into a heritage which makes their fathers lives look
poverty-stricken by comparison.
John Rockefeller

I am naturally an optimist
John Rockefeller
There are many things we must do to attain the highest benefit from all these great blessings
John Rockefeller
I have no sympathy with the idea so often advanced that our basis of all judgments in this country is
founded on money. If this were true, we should be a nation of money hoarders instead of spenders.
John Rockefeller
We are the most extra-ordinarily ambitious, and the success of one man in any walk of life spurs the
others on.
John Rockefeller
We know how much we made and where we gained or lost. At least, we tried not to deceive ourselves.
John Rockefeller
My ideas of business are no doubt old-fashioned, but the fundamental principles do not change from
generation to generation
John Rockefeller

13

Many people assume that they can get away from the truth by avoiding thinking about it, but the natural
law is inevitable, and the sooner it is recognized, the better.
John Rockefeller
You cant hold up conditions artificially, and you cant change the underlying laws of trade. If you try,
you must inevitably fail.
John Rockefeller
It is remarkable how many men overlook what should be the obvious.
John Rockefeller
A businessman must adapt himself to the natural conditions as they exist from month to month and year
to year.
John Rockefeller

Sometimes I feel that we Americans think we can find a short road to success
John Rockefeller
Real efficiency in work comes from knowing your facts and building upon that sure foundation.
John Rockefeller
Many men of wealth do not retire from business even when they can. They are not willing to be idle
these men are the great builders in our country.
John Rockefeller
If a man has succeeded, he has brought upon himself corresponding responsibilities. And our institutions
devoted to helping men to help themselves need the brain of the American business man as well as part of
his money.
John Rockefeller
I saw great opportunities in refining oil, and did not realize at that time that the whole oil industry would
soon be swamped by so many men rushing into it. But I was full of hope
14

John Rockefeller
It was only a short time before more of the finished product was put on the market than could possibly be
consumed. The price went down and down
John Rockefeller
At best it was a speculative trade, and I wonder that we managed to pull through so often; but we were
gradually learning how to conduct a most difficult business.
John Rockefeller
I ascribe the success of the Standard Oil Company to its consistent policy of making the volume of its
business large through the merit and cheapness of its products. It has spared no expense in utilizing the
best and most efficient method of manufacture It has not hesitated to sacrifice old machinery and old
plants for new and better ones.
John Rockefeller
We devoted ourselves exclusively to the oil business and its products. The company never went into
outside ventures, but kept to the enormous task of perfecting its own organization.
John Rockefeller
Many people who thought they were wealthy found that the actual facts were quite different from what
they had imagined when the hard experiences of that panic [Of 1893] forced upon them the unpalatable
truth.
John Rockefeller
It has been our policy never to allow a company in which we had an interest to be thrown into the
bankruptcy court if we could prevent it; for receiverships are very costly in many ways and often involve
heavy sacrifices of genuine values.
John Rockefeller
Much can be done by careful and patient attention, even when the business is apparently in very deep
water. It requires two things: some added capital, put in by ones self or secured from others, and a strict
adherence to the sound natural laws of business.
John Rockefeller

15

Watch the natural operations of trade, and keep within them. Dont even think of temporary or sharp
advantages. Dont waste your effort on a thing which ends in a petty triumph unless you are satisfied with
a life of petty success.
John Rockefeller
Look ahead. It is surprising how many bright business men go into important undertakings with little or
no study of the controlling conditions they risk their all upon.
John Rockefeller
Study diligently your capital requirements, and fortify yourself to cover possible set-backs, because you
can absolutely count on meeting set-backs.
John Rockefeller
Fortify yourself to cover possible set-backs, because you can absolutely count on meeting set-backs.
John Rockefeller
Be sure that you are not deceiving yourself at any time about actual conditions.
John Rockefeller
The man who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich wont succeed; you must have a larger
ambition.
John Rockefeller
There is no mystery in business success. The great industrial leaders have told again and again the plain
and obvious fact that there can be no permanent success without fair dealing that leads to wide spread
confidence in the man himself, and that is the real capital we all prize and work for.
John Rockefeller
There is no mystery in business success If you do each days task successfully, and stay faithfully
within these natural operations of commercial laws which I talks so much about, and keep your head
clear, you will come out all right.
John Rockefeller

16

It is hardly necessary to caution a young man to not lose his head over a little success, or to grow
impatient or discouraged by a little failure.
John Rockefeller
Since 1857 I can remember all the great panics, but I believe the panic of 1907 was the most trying. No
one escaped from it, great or small.
John Rockefeller
The question has been asked if I think we shall revive quickly from the panic of October, 1907. I hesitate
to speak on the subject, since I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet; but as to the ultimate outcome
there is, of course, no doubt. This temporary set-back will not long depress our wonderful spirit of
initiative.
John Rockefeller
A gradual recovery will only tend to make the future all the more secure, and patience is a virtue in
business affairs as in other things.
John Rockefeller
One cannot successfully go against natural tendencies, and it is folly to fail to recognize them.
John Rockefeller
I am sure it is a mistake to assume that the possession of money in great abundance necessarily brings
happiness.
John Rockefeller
The very rich are just like all the rest of us; and if they get pleasure from the possession of money, it
comes from their ability to do things which give satisfaction to someone besides themselves.
John Rockefeller
As I study wealthy men, I can see but one way in which they can secure a real equivalent for money
spent, and that is to cultivate a taste for giving where the money may produce an effect which will be a
lasting gratification.
John Rockefeller

17

The best philanthropy, the help that does the most good and the least harm, the help that nourishes
civilization at its very root, that most widely disseminates health, righteousness, and happiness, is not
what is usually called charity. It is the investment of effort or time or money to give opportunity for
progress and healthful labour where it did not exist before.
John Rockefeller
It may be urged that the daily vocation of life is one thing, and the work of philanthropy quite another. I
have no sympathy with this notion.
John Rockefeller

Let your first thought be: Where can I fit in so that I may be most effective in the work of the world?
Where can I lend a hand in a way most effectively to advance the general interests?
John Rockefeller
The man will be most successful who confers the greatest service on the world.
John Rockefeller
Commercial enterprises that are not needed fail, and ought to fail.
John Rockefeller
A business philosopher would be most careful to avoid in his investments of time and effort or money, is
the unnecessary duplication of existing industries.
John Rockefeller
Probably the greatest single obstacle to the progress and happiness of the American people lies in the
willingness of so many men to invest their time and money in multiplying competitive industries instead
of opening up new fields, and putting their money into lines of industry and development that are needed.
John Rockefeller
It requires a better type of mind to seek out and to support or to create the new than to follow the worn
paths of accepted success
John Rockefeller

18

It is a good thing to lead children to realize early the importance of their obligations to others but it is
increasingly difficult; for what were luxuries then have become commonplace now.
John Rockefeller
It should be a greater pleasure and satisfaction to give money for a good cause than to earn it
John Rockefeller
It is one thing to stand on the comfortable ground of placid inaction and put forth words of cynical
wisdom, and another to plunge into the work itself and through strenuous experience earn the right to
express strong conclusions.
John Rockefeller
The only thing which is of lasting benefit to a man is that which he does for himself. Money which comes
to him without effort on his part is seldom a benefit and often a course.
John Rockefeller

The principal objection to speculation it is not because more lose than gain, though that is true but it is
because those who gain are apt to receive more injury from their success than they would have received
from failure.
John Rockefeller
The forces which conquer sickness are within the body itself, and that it is only when these are reduced
below the normal that disease can get a foothold.
John Rockefeller
The way to ward off disease is to tone up the body generally; and when disease has secured a foothold,
the way to combat it is to help these natural resisting agencies which are in the body already.
John Rockefeller
The failures which a man makes in his life are due almost always to some defect in his personality, some
weakness of body, or mind, or character, will, or temperament.
John Rockefeller

19

The only way to overcome these failings is to build up his personality from within, so that he, by virtue of
what is within him, may overcome the weakness which was the cause of the failure. It is only those
efforts the man himself puts forth that can really help him.
John Rockefeller
We all desire to see the widest possible distribution of the blessings of life.
John Rockefeller
The principal cause for the economic differences between people is their difference in personality
John Rockefeller
It is only as we can assist in the wider distribution of those qualities which go to make up a strong
personality that we can assist in the wider distribution of wealth.
John Rockefeller
The man who is strong in body, in mind, in character, and in will need never suffer want. But these
qualities can never be developed in a man unless by his own efforts
John Rockefeller
The man who is strong in body, in mind, in character, and in will need never suffer want. But these
qualities can never be developed in a man unless by his own effortsThe most that any other can do for
him is to help him to help himself.
John Rockefeller
There is not enough money for the work of human uplift and that there never can be. How vitally
important therefore, that the expenditure should go as far as possible and be used with the greatest
intelligence!
John Rockefeller
Waste is a dissipation of power.
John Rockefeller
Every right-minded man has a philosophy of life, whether he knows it or not.
John Rockefeller
20

Ones ideal should be to use ones means, both in ones investments and in benefactions, for the
advancement of civilization.
John Rockefeller
[On charity] We have sought, so far as we could, to make investments in such a way as will tend to
multiply, to cheapen, and to diffuse as universally as possible the comforts of life.
John Rockefeller
Nor do we find in any of the schemes of socialism a promise that wealth would be more wisely
administered for the general good.
John Rockefeller
An individual institution of learning can have only a narrow sphere. It can reach only a limited number of
people. But every new fact discovered, every widening of the boundaries of human knowledge by
research, becomes universally known to all institutions of learning, and becomes a benefaction at once to
the whole race.
John Rockefeller
As my father taught me, so I have tried to teach my children.
John Rockefeller
I rejoice, as everybody must, in Mr [Andrew] Carnegies enthusiasm for using his wealth for the benefit
of his less fortunate fellows and I think his devotion to his adopted lands welfare has set a striking
example for all time.
John Rockefeller
At least the same energy and thought should be expended in the proper and effective use of money when
acquired as was exerted in the earning of it.
John Rockefeller

21

Ignorance is the source of a large part of the poverty and a vast amount of the crime in the world hence
the need of education.
John Rockefeller
The best philanthropy is constantly in search of the finalities a search for cause, an attempt to cure evils
at their source.
John Rockefeller
It is not personal interviews and impassioned appeals, but sound and justifying worth, that should attract
and secure the funds of philanthropy.
John Rockefeller
Let us be as careful with the money we would spend for the benefit of others as if we were laying it aside
for our own familys future use.
John Rockefeller
If the people can be educated to help themselves, we strike at the root of many of the evils of the world.
John Rockefeller
If we can help people to help themselves, then there is a permanent blessing conferred.
John Rockefeller
One often hears the men of this new generation say that they do not have the chances that their fathers
and grandfathers had. How little they know of the disadvantages from which we suffered!
John Rockefeller
As our successes began to come, I seldom put my head upon the pillow at night without speaking a few
words to myself in this wise: Now a little success, soon you will fall down, soon you will be overthrown.
Because you have got a start, you think you are quite a merchant; look out, or you will lose your head
go steady. These intimate conversations with myself, I am sure, had a great influence on my life.
John Rockefeller
It is easy to do harm in giving money.
John Rockefeller
22

BONUS: [John D Rockefeller Jr]

I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every
possession, a duty. I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is
the servant of the people and not their master. I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand;
that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living. I believe
that thrift is essential to well-ordered living and that economy is a prime requisite of a sound financial
structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs. I believe that truth and justice are
fundamental to an enduring social order. I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a mans word
should be as good as his bond; that character-not wealth or power or position-is of supreme worth. I
believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying
fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free. I
believe in an all-wise and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individuals highest
fulfillment, greatest happiness and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will. I
believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will
triumph over might.
John Rockefeller

I was an overnight success all right, but thirty years is a long, long night.
Ray Kroc
Competition can try to steal my plans and copy my style. But they cant read my mind; so Ill leave them
a mile and a half behind.
Ray Kroc
I was 52 years old. I had diabetes and incipient arthritis. I had lost my gall bladder and most of my thyroid
gland in earlier campaigns. But I was convinced that the best was ahead of me
23

Ray Kroc
I believe that if two executives think the same, one of them is superfluous.
Ray Kroc
Work is the meat in the hamburger of life.
Ray Kroc
A salesman without a product is like a violinist without a bow.
Ray Kroc
Each man makes his own happiness and is responsible for his own problems.
Ray Kroc
I have always believe that each man makes his own happiness and is responsible for his own problems. It
is a simple philosophy.
Ray Kroc
Baseball skill relates inversely to age. The older a man gets, the better a ball player he was when he was
young, according to the watery eye of memory.
Ray Kroc
Perhaps without that adversity I might not have been able to preserve later on when my financial burdens
were redoubled. I learned then how to keep problems from crushing me. I refused to worry about more
than one thing at a time, and I would not let useless fretting about a problem, no matter how important,
keep me from sleeping.
Ray Kroc

[On not losing sleep worrying about problems.] This was easier said than done. I did it through my own
brand of self-hypnosis.
Ray Kroc

24

I would think of my mind as being a blackboard full of messages, most of them urgent, and I practiced
imagining a hand with an eraser wiping that blackboard clean. I made my mind completely blank.
Ray Kroc
Ive never been too proud to grab a mop and clean up the restrooms, even if I happened to be wearing a
good suit.
Ray Kroc
We would induce a property owner to lease us his land on a subordinated basis. That is, he would take
back a second mortgage so that we could go to a lending institution and arrange a first mortgage on the
building, the landlord would subordinate his land to the building.
Ray Kroc
One of the reasons his [Harry Sonneborn] subordinated lease idea worked so well was that in the late
fifties we didnt have the proliferation of franchise operations and the fierce competition for commercial
fringe property that developed in the course of the next twenty years. Another reason was that both Harry
and I were pretty good salesmen, and we could romance a property owner with the notion of earning at
least a little something from his vacant land.
Ray Kroc
[Getting involved in real estate] This was the beginning of real income for McDonalds.
Ray Kroc
Harry devised a formula for the monthly payments being made by our operators that paid our own
mortgage and other expenses plus a profit. We received this set monthly minimum or a percentage of the
volume the operator did, whichever was greater.
Ray Kroc
People have marvelled at the fact that I didnt start McDonalds until I was fifty-two years old and then I
became a success overnight. But I was just like a lot of show business personalities who work away
quietly at their craft for years, and then, suddenly, they get the right break and make it big. I was an
overnight success all right, but thirty years is a long, long night.
Ray Kroc

25

You must perfect every fundamental of your business if you expect it to perform well.
Ray Kroc
It was then that Harrys view of the corporation as just a real estate business, rather than a hamburger
business, began to crystallize.
Ray Kroc
It is impossible to grant someone happiness. The best you can do is to give him the freedom to pursue
happiness. Happiness is not a tangible thing, its a by product a by product of achievement.
Ray Kroc

A man must take advantage of any opportunity that comes along

Ray Kroc
I plunged gleefully into my campaign to sell a Multimixer to every drug store soda foundation and dairy
bar in the nation.
Ray Kroc
Visions of McDonalds restaurants dotting crossroads all over the country paraded through my mind
Ray Kroc
[At 52 years of age] I was still green and growing, and I was flying along at an altitude slightly higher
than the plane.
Ray Kroc
I was never much of a reader when I was a boy. Books bored me. I liked action. But I spent a lot of time
thinking about things. Id imagine all kinds of situations and how I would handle them.
Ray Kroc
I never considered my dreams wasted energy; they were invariably linked to some form of action. When I
dreamed about having a lemonade stand, for example, it wasnt long before I set up a lemonade stand.
Ray Kroc
26

I daydreamed that I was a piano man too

Ray Kroc
I learned that you could influence people with a smile and enthusiasm and sell them a sundae when what
theyd come for was a cup of coffee.
Ray Kroc
[On World War I and his parents] I finally talked them into letting me join up as a Red Cross ambulance
driver. I had to lie about my age, of course, but even my grandmother could accept that. In my company,
which assembled in Connecticut for training, was another fellow who had lied about his age to get in. He
was regarded as a strange duck, because whenever we had time off and went out on the town to chase
girls, he stayed in camp drawing pictures. His name was Walt Disney.
Ray Kroc
No self-respecting pitcher throws the same way to every batter, and no self-respecting salesman makes
the same pitch to every client.
Ray Kroc

It was interesting, but I could see that I was not cut out for a career of peddling rosebuds for farm wives to
sew on garters and bedcushions.
Ray Kroc
One day when I went to work, the office was boarded up, and the sheriff had posted a notice that theyd
gone bankrupt. That hurt! They owed me a weeks pay plus vacation time.
Ray Kroc
It wasnt easy. I pounded the pavement in my territory from early morning until 5:00 or 5:30 in the
afternoon. I would have worked longer, I suppose, but I had another job waiting for me at 6 oclock
playing piano at radio station WGES at Oak Park.
Ray Kroc

27

Ethel [His wife] used to complain once in a while about the amount of time I spent away from home
working. Looking back on it now, I guess it was kind of unfair. But I was driven by ambition. I hated to
be idle for a minute. I was determined to live well and have nice things too, and we could do so with the
income from my two jobs.
Ray Kroc
I used to comb through the advertisements in the local newspaper for notices of house sales in the
wealthier suburbs River Forest, Hinsdale, and Wheaton. I haunted these sales and picked up pieces of
elegant furniture at bargain basement prices.
Ray Kroc
[Does history keep repeating?] A lot of financiers and business moguls seemed to be looking at the world
through the rose-colored glasses that Tommy Malie sang about, and if great men like Secretary of
Commerce Herbert Hoover believed we had reached the point of perpetual prosperity, who was to
disagree?
Ray Kroc
Too many salesmen, I found, would make a good presentation and convince the client, but they couldnt
recognize that critical moment when they should have stopped talking.
Ray Kroc
I found my customers appreciated a straightforward approach. They would buy if I made my pitch and
asked for their order without a lot of beating around the bush.
Ray Kroc
I didnt try to force an order on a soda fountain operator when I could see that his business had fallen off
because of cold weather and he didnt need the damn cups. My philosophy was one of helping my
customer, and if I couldnt sell him by helping him improve his own sales, I felt I wasnt doing my job.
Ray Kroc
Years later I recalled that spare bill in my first motto for McDonalds KISS which means, Keep it
simple, stupid.
Ray Kroc

28

The property was underwater, but there was a solid bed of coral rock beneath, and the dredging for the
intercoastal raised all the lots high and dry, with permanent abutments. People who purchased those lots
really got a bargain, even though the prices were astronomical for those times, because the area is now
one of the most beautiful in all of Florida, and lots there are worth many times what they sold them for.
Ray Kroc
Just when I was getting into the swing of selling these lots, the whole business vanished.
Ray Kroc
One mans famine makes another mans feast
Ray Kroc
[My] Father seemed to have a Midas touch when it came to picking property. He was so busy pyramiding
his land holdings, though, that he somehow failed to see as we all failed to see whatever warnings
there might have been of the impending crash.
Ray Kroc
[My father] He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1930. He had worried himself to death. On his desk the
day he died were two pieces of paper his last paycheck from the telegraph company and a garnishment
notice for the entire amount of his wages.
Ray Kroc
[On refusing to take a 10% pay cut during the recession when he was their number one salesman] I can
understand it, perfectly. But I refuse to accept it. This company has already squeezed me out of pennies.
Now, the minute things get a little tough, Im supposed to sacrifice dollars. Well, Im not doing it. You can
have your damned job with its ten percent pay cut. Im quittin and thats that.
Ray Kroc
I felt several inches taller when I left that office. Id won.
Ray Kroc
[On being accused that I hear that youve been telling your salesmen how to make money on their
expense accounts] Thats right. I have. Here is exactly what I told my men: Each of you gets a certain
amount per diem for your expenses on the road. You get so much for a room, so much for travel, and so
29

much for food. Instead of staying in a room with a bath, take a walk down the hall. Youll be just as clean,
and youll save money. When you take the train, get an upper berth, youll sleep just as well as in a lower
and it will cost you less. Dont eat breakfast in the fancy hotel restaurant, go the YMCA cafeteria. Have
prunes and oatmeal; its filling and its good for you; it keeps you being a regular guy. I walked away
feeling tall again
Ray Kroc
I liked Earl [Prince] immediately. He was a very plain-spoken, straight-forward guy. In later years the
girls in my office would laugh about his frugality. Here was this highly successful, wealthy man who
wore a musty old hat and somewhat seedy looking clothes. He could afford to take the entire staff out to
lunch at the Pump Room, but he steadfastly refused to pay Chicago restaurant prices any restaurant.
Instead hed send out for a peanut butter sandwich. I never knocked his frugality, of course; I respected it
although he may have carried it to extremes.
Ray Kroc
You just have to trust my instincts.
Ray Kroc

Theres almost nothing you cant accomplish if you set your mind to it.
Ray Kroc
[On the art of entrepreneurship] Youre not going to get it free, and you have to take risks. I dont mean to
be a daredevil, thats crazy. But you have to take risks, and in some cases you must go for broke.
Ray Kroc
If you believe in something, youve got to be in it to the ends of your toes.
Ray Kroc
Taking reasonable risks is part of the challenge. Its the fun.
Ray Kroc

30

I paid tribute, in the feudal sense, for many years before I was able to rise with McDonalds on the
foundation I had laid.
Ray Kroc
Others marveled that I could work twelve or fourteen hours a day at a busy convention, then entertain
customers until two or three oclock in the morning, and still be out of bed early, ready to collar my next
client.
Ray Kroc
My secret was in getting the most out of every minute of rest. I guess I couldnt have averaged more than
six hours of sleep a night. Many times I got four hours or less. But I slept as hard as I worked.
Ray Kroc
I considered myself a connoisseur of kitchens; after all, selling Multimixers took me into thousands of
them.
Ray Kroc
I prided myself on being able to tell which operations would appeal to the public and which would fail.
Ray Kroc
[On the hassle of disassembling the Multimixers after trade shows] I sometimes wished Id gotten into
selling something I could fit in my pocket.
Ray Kroc

[On June Martino] If she didnt know something, shed burrow into library books and find out.
Ray Kroc
The party was a terrific success, but Fold-a-Nook was an enormous flop. I got not a single order.
Ray Kroc
A good executive does not like mistakes. He will allow his subordinates an honest mistake once in a
while, but he will never condone or forgive dishonesty.
31

Ray Kroc
[On him first seeing how the McDonalds bros system worked] When I saw it working that day in 1954, I
felt like some latter-day Newton whod just had an Idaho potato caromed off his skull.
Ray Kroc
The simplicity of the procedure allowed the McDonalds to concentrate on quality in every step, and that
was the trick.
Ray Kroc
[On signing an agreement that meant he couldnt change the plans of any McDonalds stores unless the
changes were spelled out in writing, signed by both McDonald brothers and sent back to him by
registered mail.] This seemingly innocuous requirement created massive problems for me. Theres an old
saying that a man who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer, and it certainly applied in this instance.
Ray Kroc
I have often been asked why I didnt simply copy the McDonalds brothers plan. They showed me the
whole thing and it would have been an easy matter, seemingly to pattern a restaurant after theirs.
Truthfully, the idea never crossed my mind. I saw it through the eyes of a salesman. Here was a complete
package, and I could get out and talk up a storm about it. I guess the real answer is that I was so nave
or so honest and that it never occurred to me that I could take their idea and copy it and not pay them a
red cent.
Ray Kroc
[On his wife Ethels reaction to him and doing the McDonalds deal] This was a veritable Wagnerian
opera of strife.
Ray Kroc
I had no time to bother with emotional stress, though. I had to find a site for my first McDonalds store
and start building.
Ray Kroc

32

My troubles started the minute I got together with my contractor and went over with him the plans
furnished by the McDonalds architect. That structure was designed for a semi-desert location. It was on a
slab, no basement, and it had a swamp cooler on the roof.
Ray Kroc

I brought in architectural consultants one after the other in an attempt to solve the problem of exhausting
the stale air and replacing it with fresh cool or heated air. These guys could design a cathedral, but they
didnt seem to be able to deal with my little hamburger store.
Ray Kroc
One of my suppliers told me, Ray, you know you arent in the hamburger business at all. Youre in the
French-fry business. I dont know how the livin hell you do it, but youve got the best French fries in
town, and thats whats selling folks on your place. You know, I think youre right, I replied. But, you son
of a bitch, dont you dare tell anyone about it!
Ray Kroc
[On being misled over a deal by the McDonald brothers] Id been blindfolded by their assurances and let
to grind like blind Samson in the prison house.
Ray Kroc
Perfection is very difficult to achieve, and perfection was what I wanted in McDonalds. Everything else
was secondary for me.
Ray Kroc
[On Harry Sonneborn] I had to admire his persistence, and also the resolve he had that he would devote
every working minute to McDonalds twenty-four hours a day if necessary. I believed him.
Ray Kroc
The company could never have grown as it did without the unique vision of Harry Sonneborn.
Ray Kroc
In my definition, an executive is a person who rarely makes mistakes.
33

Ray Kroc
It was painfully slow going, like trying to ice skate on bare concrete but we worked like mad, and in
the last eight months of 1956 we opened eight stores, only one of them in California.
Ray Kroc
Ive always dealt fairly in business, even when I believed someone was trying to take advantage of me.
Thats one reason I have had to grind way incessantly to achieve success.
Ray Kroc
In some ways I guess Im nave. I always take a man at his word unless hes given me a reason not to, and
Ive worked out many a satisfactory deal on the strength of a handshake. On the other hand, Ive been
taken to the cleaners often enough to make me a certified cynic.
Ray Kroc
Building dream castles was one thing; actually getting into the restaurant development business was a
seemingly insurmountable problem.
Ray Kroc
I felt like Samson with a fresh haircut. But that dream of what the company could be sustained me.
Ray Kroc
I believe that if you hire a man to do a job, you ought to get out of the way and let him do it. If you doubt
his ability, you shouldnt have hired him in the first place.
Ray Kroc
I recall that Harry made a trip to San Bernardino about the time we were really starting to roll, and Dick
McDonald asked him what he thought the future of McDonalds would be. Harry told him that one day
this company would be bigger than F. W. Woolworth. Dick really did a double take at that. He told me
later, I thought you had a genuine nut on your hands, Ray. But Harry knew exactly where he wanted to
go, and he knew how to get there.
Ray Kroc

34

I couldnt give them raises to compensate them for their past efforts, but I could make sure that they
would be rewarded when McDonalds became one of the countrys major companies, which I never
doubted it would. I gave them stock ten percent to June and twenty percent to Harry and ultimately it
would make them rich. At the time, of course Chicago Transit Authority tokens would have been worth
more.
Ray Kroc
If I had a brick for every time Ive repeated the phrase QSC and V (Quality, Service, Cleanliness and
Value), I think Id probably be able to bridge the Atlantic Ocean with them.
Ray Kroc
June set great store by her feminine intuition. Some people actually thought she was psychic. But I
didnt need a horoscope to tell me the value of her role in our office.
Ray Kroc
Harry was the scholarly type. He analyzed situations on the basis of management theory and economic
principles. I proceeded on the strength of my salesmans instinct and my subjective assessment of people.
Ray Kroc
I like to get people fired up, fill them with zeal for McDonalds, and watch the results in their work.
Ray Kroc
One time a McDonalds operator came to me with the idea hed dreamed up to cut costs by producing a
doughnut-shaped patty. His notion was to plug the hole with condiments, and cover it with a pickle so that
customer wouldnt notice the hole. I told him we wanted to feed our customers, not fleece them, but I
couldnt suppress a chuckle at the outrageous con artistry of the idea; a real Chicago fast one.
Ray Kroc

Adversity can strengthen you if you have the will to grind it out.
Ray Kroc
If anyone stood to gain by our success and suffer if we failed, it was our suppliers.
35

Ray Kroc
Morris Goldfarb [in 1976] said he was certain that Ray Kroc has made millionaires of more men than
any other person in history. I dont know about that; I appreciate Morries view, but I would put it another
way. Id rather say I gave a lot of men the opportunity to become millionaires. They did it themselves. I
merely provided the means. But I certainly do know a powerful number of success stories.
Ray Kroc
The McDonald brothers were simply not on my wavelength at all. I was obsessed with the idea of making
McDonalds the biggest and the best. They were content with what they had; they didnt want to be
bothered with more risks and more demands.
Ray Kroc
My way of fighting the competition is the positive approach. Stress your own strengths, emphasize
quality, service, cleanliness and value, and the competition will wear itself out trying to keep up.
Ray Kroc
The thing that has made this country great is our free enterprise system. If we have to resort to this
bringing in the government to beat our competition, then we deserve to go broke.
Ray Kroc
I wasnt prepared for this big room with clattering typewriters and teletype printers. You could hardly hear
yourself think.
Ray Kroc
Even though our stores were booming, and even though our development accounting allowed us to show
a profit, we had no cash flow. We were in the trough between our heavy outlays for land and buildings
and the income in rents from those properties.
Ray Kroc
Years later I learned that Gerry [Newman] had gone home and told his wife, Bobbi, that he had met me
that night, and I had to be either a nut or a dreamer or both. Here he was worried about whether wed still
be in business the next week, and I was carrying on about the billions of dollars in our future.
Ray Kroc
36

A year or so after that incident [Believing Ray Kroc to be either a nut or a dreamer or both], Gerry was
offered a job by another drive-in chain at twice the salary he was getting from us. He turned it down.
When the disbelieving head hunter asked why, he said, Because you dont have a Ray Kroc.
Ray Kroc

There are things money cant buy and hard work cant win. One of them is happiness.
Ray Kroc
Lets get this straight once and for all. I want nothing from you but a good product. Dont wine me, dont
dine me, dont buy me any Christmas presents. If there are any cost breaks, pass them on to the operators
of McDonalds stores.
Ray Kroc
One morning, I cam to work to find Colonel Sanders sitting outside my door typing away. It was Mary
[Torigian] wearing Kentucky Fried Chicken halloween mask.
Ray Kroc
For an operator to insist on peeling his own potatoes in the store instead of using a frozen product was on
the same order as insisting on slaughtering his own steers and grinding the hamburger. Not quite as
messy, of course, but potato peelings gave us plenty of problems nevertheless.
Ray Kroc
No stable in the world could stink worse than a rich vein of fermenting potato peelings.
Ray Kroc
Customers tend to avoid a restaurant thats going aswamp in its own sludge.
Ray Kroc
[On initial attempts to introduce the McDonalds Filet-O-Fish hamburger] I dont care if the Pope himself
comes to Cincinnati. He can eat hamburgers like everybody else. We are not going to stink up our
restaurants with any of your damned old fish!
37

Ray Kroc
I like people who level with me and speak their minds. I always say exactly what I think; its a trait thats
gotten me in trouble plenty of times, but I never have problems getting to sleep at night with a guilty
conscience. Thats why I could never be a politician.
Ray Kroc
Not that I think a politician has to be dishonest but he has to compromise some things he believes in
strongly for the sake of political expediency. I could not do that.
Ray Kroc
[On his friend Harry Sonneborn resigning on a final argument] Theres a cross you must bear if you
intend to be head of a big corporation: you lose a lot of your friends on the way up. Its lonely on top.

I can still picture those newspaper headlines announcing, The End of an Era: McDonalds 15-Cent
Hamburger is Now 18 Cents. Whew!
Ray Kroc
When times are bad is when you want to build! Why wait for things to pick up so everything will cost
more?
Ray Kroc
If a location is good enough to buy, we want to build on it right away and be in there before the
competition. Pump some money and activity into a town, and theyll remember you for it.
Ray Kroc
The real estate wasnt ever going to come down in price no way!
Ray Kroc
We are in the real estate business, not the hamburger business.
Ray Kroc

38

I became a real entrepreneur, crazy enough to take the risk of losing everything.
Ray Kroc
Happiness is not a tangible thing, its a byproduct a byproduct of achievement.
Ray Kroc
Achievement must be made against the possibility of failure, against the risk of defeat.
Ray Kroc
It is no achievement to walk a tightrope laid flat on the floor.
Ray Kroc
Where there is no risk, there can be no pride on achievement and, consequently, no happiness. The only
way we can advance is by going forward, individually and collectively, in the spirit of the pioneer.
Ray Kroc

If I would, I could. If I will, I can.

Jim Rohn
An immediate reward for lack of discipline is a fun day at the beach. A future reward of discipline is
owning the beach. Unfortunately, most of us would choose todays pleasure over tomorrows fortune.
Jim Rohn
The keys to discipline Start with the little things and work up to the big ones.
Jim Rohn
Ive discovered that you cant change people. They can change themselves. Good people are found, not
changed. If you want good people, you have to find them.
Jim Rohn
I will discipline myself to achieve my goals so in the years ahead I can celebrate my successes.
Jim Rohn

39

Its not what happens in the world that determines the major part of your future. What happens, happens
to us all. The key is what you do about it.
Jim Rohn
Happiness doesnt come from big pieces of great success but from small, daily achievements. What Mr
(Benjamin) Franklin is saying is that we must be happy with what weve got when were in pursuit of
what we really want. Abraham Lincoln said it best. He said, Youll be as happy as you make up your
mind to be.
Jim Rohn
If you dont like your present address, change it youre not a tree!
Jim Rohn
It means that big achievements come one small step at a time. It means that youve got to enjoy the
journey. It means that you must enjoy and take pride in your little accomplishments. It means celebrating
who you are becoming in pursuit of your larger goal. And it means doing so everyday.
Jim Rohn
Discipline is the requirement for progress.
Jim Rohn

Set compelling goals.

Jim Rohn
Ambitious people know that everything they do and every discipline they adhere to form the links in the
chain of events that will lead them to their final destination.
Jim Rohn
The best money spent is the money spent to cultivate the genius of your own mind and spirit.
Jim Rohn

40

Hear or read something challenging, something instructional, at least thirty minutes a day, everyday. You
can get along without some meals, but you cant get along without some ideas, examples and inspiration.
Jim Rohn
When you live a very public life, you treasure solitude.
Jim Rohn
Effective brainstorming can only happen if you disassociate from your ego.
Jim Rohn
It is easy to get up in the morning when you awaken anxious to make progress towards your dreams.
When youre excited about life, youll wake up long before your alarm clock goes off.
Jim Rohn
In my minds eye I could picture him over the coming years, working long hours, meeting deadlines,
overcoming obstacles, doing everything it takes to be successful and doing it gladly!
Jim Rohn
Happiness is not in the getting. Happiness is in the becoming. Happiness is a universal quest. Happiness
is a joy that comes as a result of positive activity. It has a wide variety of meanings, a wide variety of
interpretations. Happiness is both the joy of discovery and the joy of knowing. Its the joy that comes
from designing a life that practices the fine art of living well. Happiness is being able to explore all that
life offers. Happiness is quite often found in having options options of doing what you want to, instead
of doing what you have to. The option of living where you want to, instead of living where you have to.
The option of looking like you want to, instead of settling for what you have to look like.
Jim Rohn
Happiness is receiving and sharing, reaping and bestowing. Happiness is found in taking the time to enjoy
what youre accomplished: enjoying the plateau, giving yourself credit when credit is due, patting
yourself on the back for a job well done. Happiness is the here and now. Happiness isnt the end result.
Happiness is part of the journey.
Jim Rohn

41