Engage In One Kind Of Business Only, And Stick To It - PT Barnum

PT Barnum
Company: Barnum and Bailey Circus
Net Worth: Unknown

The Fiji Mermaid, Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker, General Tom Thumb the Midget – besides being considered “freaks”, they all had in common one man, P.T. Barnum. He was a master showman whose rise to fame came in the 19th century thanks to his traveling “freak shows”. But Barnum was more than that; he was above all else an entrepreneur and a highly successful salesman. Barnum knew how to get people talking. Today, the legacy of his work lives on in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, still billed as ‘The Greatest Show On Earth.’

His association with ‘freaks’ and clowns has often led to him being overlooked as a businessman, but Barnum was indeed one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 19th century. He started with nothing but determination, and used that to build a brand and an empire that continue to thrive today. How did he do it?

Advice For Entrepreneurs:

“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. ”