James Cash Penney
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Historical Quotes
James Cash Penney
By Tom Kirvan
He was a man who lived by the “Golden Rule,” making its teachings the foundation of a business empire that included 1,400 stores before a reckoning brought on by the Great Depression.
James Cash Penney – who was born on September 16, 1875 in Hamilton, Mo. – was the founder of the JCPenney department store chain, a retail company and key anchor store in shopping malls across the U.S.
The son of a Baptist minister who toiled as a farmer, Penney and several business partners opened the Golden Rule dry goods store in Kemmerer, Wyoming in 1902, expanding their operation to several other frontier towns over the next two years. In 1907, Penney bought out his original partners and began a journey that would help shape the retail landscape in America for decades to come.
In 1927, the company went public, issuing stock that was traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The move fueled its explosive growth over the next two years before the stock market crash of 1929 nearly ruined it. Despite suffering enormous personal losses, Penney steered the company through the Great Depression, relying on a formula of low prices and cash-only sales to steady its fortunes.
James Cash Penney*
(JC Penney)
Penney also built a culture of loyalty, calling his employees “associates” who, when they became managers, would share in the profits of the company.
“The greatest teacher I know is the job itself,” said Penney of his formula for success. “I do not believe in excuses. I believe in hard work as the prime solvent for life’s problems.
“Give me a stock clerk with a goal, and I will give you a man who will make history,” Penney added. “Give me a man without a goal, and I will give you a stock clerk.”
When he died in 1971 at the age of 95, Penney left a legacy as an entrepreneurial titan and noted philanthropist who established a foundation that addressed such issues as community renewal, the environment, and world peace.
“I am grateful for all of my problems,” Penney said in reflecting on his life. “After each one was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties.”
*See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons