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P.T. Barnum Quotes

Article Overview: P.T. Barnum Quotes

P.T. Barnum Quotes

I had my room papered and carpeted previously to taking possession.

Brass, for silver and gold I have none.

Without promotion something terrible happens, nothing!

Newspaper reporters came from far and near, and wrote glowing accounts of the elephantine performances. The six acres were plowed over at least sixty times before I thought the advertisement sufficiently circulated.

Many persons are always kept poor, because they are too visionary. Every project looks to them like certain successes, and therefore they keep changing from one business to another, always in hot water, always ‘under the harrow’.

Do not scatter your powers.

Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it.

A constant hammering on one nail will generally drive it home at last, so that it can be clinched. When a man's undivided attention is centered on one object, his mind will constantly be suggesting improvements of value, which would escape him if his brain was occupied by a dozen different subjects at once.

Many a fortune has slipped through a man's fingers because he was engaged in too many occupations at a time.

There is good sense in the old caution against having too many irons in the fire at once.

Work at it, if necessary, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now…Ambition, energy, industry, perseverance, are indispensable requisites for success in business.

Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements, will all prove unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly.

The truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be the patronage bestowed upon him.

Men who drive sharp bargains with their customers, acting as if they never expected to see them again, will not be mistaken. They will never see them again as customers. People don’t like to pay and get kicked also.

If you whip him, he will never visit the museum again, and he will induce friends to go with him to other places of amusement instead of this, and thus you see, I should be a serious loser.

If he owned the Museum, and you had paid him for the privilege of visiting it, and he had then insulted you, there might be some reason in your resenting it, but in this instance he is the man who pays, while we receive, and you must, therefore, put up with his bad manners.

If you hesitate, some bolder had will stretch out before you and get the prize.

A man who is known to be strictly honest, may be ever so poor, but he has the purses of all the community at his disposal, for all know that if he promises to return what he borrows, he will never disappoint them.

As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them, and they will do better by you than if you always treated them as if you wanted to get the most you could of them for the least return.

We are all, no doubt, born for a wise purpose.

Unless a man enters upon the vocation intended for him by nature, and best suited to his peculiar genius, he cannot succeed.

Related Articles
  Lesson #5: Invest Your Best Capital in Your Customers
  Stealing the Show: How Barnum Made a Success of Himself
  Lesson #1: Playing it Safe is Not Playing at All
  Lesson #2: Promotion is Your Company’s Best Punch
  Master of the Show: P.T. Barnum is Born

Article Tags: caution, civility, energy industry, good sense, harrow, hot water, irons in the fire, occupations, patronage, patrons, perseverance, politeness, pt barnum, requisites, silver and gold, silver and gold i have none, six acres, successes, taking possession, undivided attention



Related Forum Posts
Re: My Favourite 5 Gutsiest Entrepreneur Launches of All Time - All phonomenal launches. Microsoft obviously is legendary now. I like the tactics of Barnum with his greatest show on earth, particularly when media outlets were not what they are today. Great inspiration Evan.
Facebook application - Hi Kevin - thanks for the suggestion! The two that we were thinking of were Famous Entrepreneur Quotes and Which famous entrepreneur am I most like? I like your idea as well. We've got a rollout schedule of new features for the site that we are working on first before we can get to the Facebook app. We're also not sure how hard it is to integrate into Facebook. It looks like there is a php way to do it which is great because that is our core competency.
Facebook applications - ....[quote:36s714h1]The two that we were thinking of were Famous Entrepreneur Quotes and Which famous entrepreneur am I most like? [/quote:36s714h1] So far my own foray into Facebook has been a complete bust, though I expected that from the start. But if I do an Application for my own particular field of interest, such as Your Favorite Sci Fi movie...that might get people going. So Evan when you figure out how to do this please let me know how complicated it is!!


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