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J. C. Penney's father was a farmer and unpaid Baptist minister who taught his children to believe in the Golden Rule. Young Penney wanted to be a lawyer but could not afford college tuition. After high school he worked on his father's farm and found employment as a clerk in a local dry goods store. He moved to Colorado, where he opened his own butcher shop, which promptly failed. He went to work in another dry goods store, and after a few years he was offered the job of assistant manager at a Wyoming shop called the Golden Rule Store. The store's name reflected his own philosophy of life, so he believed it was God's will that he take the job.

When the Golden Rule Store proved prosperous, Penney was offered a chance to buy a one-third share in a new store, in Kemmerer, Wyo. The price was $2,000, and he had only $500 in savings, but he signed an I.O.U. for the rest. The Golden Rule Store in Kemmerer opened on 14 Apr 1902, with manager and co-owner Penney living in the attic, and it is now considered the first store in the Penney chain. Within a few years Penney was a partner in three Golden Rule stores, and in 1907 he bought out his partners.

His stores were among the first retailers to offer "one price for all" instead of haggling on almost every sale, and Penney set the price low enough to earn "a fair remuneration and not all the profits the traffic will bear". He instituted a profit-sharing program for store managers, which was later expanded to include all employees. Within seven years he had twenty-two stores, and in 1913 the business was incorporated as J.C. Penney Stores Company, keeping "the Golden Rule" as an informal motto. For many years he oversaw the company's hiring, and explained his philosophy as, "Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I'll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I'll give you a stock clerk". When the owner of his home town dry goods store retired in 1927, Penney bought the Hamilton, Missouri, store where he had first worked, and made it Penney's 500th store.

After the 1929 stock crash, Penney lost virtually all his personal wealth, and borrowed against his life insurance policies to help the company meet its payroll. Suffering his own depression, he briefly checked into John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium. The company, of course, survived and prospered again, and so did its founder. After regaining his health and wealth, he became known as a philanthropist, establishing or giving many millions to numerous charities. He also wrote several folksy books offering homespun homilies of running a business by ethical principles.

By virtually all accounts Penney's approach was sincere, and "the Golden Rule" was more than a mere slogan. He rode city buses to work at Penney's New York headquarters, and as late as the 1960s, while Penney was in his 70s, he regularly visited his company's stores and occasionally stepped behind the counter to help customers. Penney was one of the first businessmen to call his employees "associates", but they actually were associates -- by his death in 1971, the company's profit-sharing program included all of its 50,000 store workers, and Penney's was America's second largest non-grocery retailer behind Sears Roebuck. With decades of more ordinary business management since his death, the company's reputation and profits have, of course, declined.

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A merchant who approaches business with the idea of serving the public well has nothing to fear from the competition.
James Cash Penney

A store's best advertisement is the service its goods render, for upon such service rest the future, the good-will, of an organization.
James Cash Penney

As a rule, we find what we look for; we achieve what we get ready for.
James Cash Penney

Change is vital, improvement the logical form of change.
James Cash Penney

Clock watchers never seem to be having a good time.
James Cash Penney

Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement.
James Cash Penney

Determine to do some thinking for yourself. Don't live entirely upon the thoughts of others. Don't be an automaton.
James Cash Penney

Do not primarily train men to work. Train them to serve willingly and intelligently.
James Cash Penney

Every man must decide for himself whether he shall master his world or be mastered by it.
James Cash Penney

Exchange ideas frequently.
James Cash Penney

Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.
James Cash Penney

Honor bespeaks worth. Confidence begets trust. Service brings satisfaction. Cooperation proves the quality of leadership.
James Cash Penney

I believe a man is better anchored who has a belief in the Supreme Being.
James Cash Penney

I believe in trusting men, not only once but twice - in giving a failure another chance.
James Cash Penney

I cannot remember a time when the Golden Rule was not my motto and precept, the torch that guided my footsteps.
James Cash Penney

I do not believe in excuses. I believe in hard work as the prime solvent of life's problems.
James Cash Penney

I never trust an executive who tends to pass the buck. Nor would I want to deal with him as a customer or a supplier.
James Cash Penney

I was long brought up to think that it was nothing short of a crime to miss a sale.
James Cash Penney

It is always the start that requires the greatest effort.
James Cash Penney

It is the service we are not obliged to give that people value most.
James Cash Penney

It was always my practice to train salespeople under my direct supervision, and to treat children with the utmost consideration.
James Cash Penney

Luck is always the last refuge of laziness and incompetence.
James Cash Penney

Men are not great or small because of their material possessions. They are great or small because of what they are.
James Cash Penney

My definition of an executive's job is brief and to the point. It is simply this: Getting things done through other people.
James Cash Penney

No business can succeed in any great degree without being properly organized.
James Cash Penney

No company can afford not to move forward. It may be at the top of the heap today but at the bottom of the heap tomorrow, if it doesn't.
James Cash Penney

The greatest teacher I know is the job itself.
James Cash Penney

The keystone of successful business is cooperation. Friction retards progress.
James Cash Penney

The men who have furnished me with my greatest inspiration have not been men of wealth, but men of deeds.
James Cash Penney

The problem with the bronco is to get on and stay on. This is the problem with the Golden Rule-to understand and apply.
James Cash Penney

The thought in my mind was that I must be a good merchant. If I were a good merchant, the rest would probably take care of itself.
James Cash Penney

The well-satisfied customer will bring the repeat sale that counts.
James Cash Penney

Theory is splendid but until put into practice, it is valueless.
James Cash Penney

There has never been a time when a career in the Penney Company was not a challenge that brought out the best in a man.
James Cash Penney

There's no better friend to any merchant than a fair competitor.
James Cash Penney

Too many would-be executives are slaves of routine.
James Cash Penney

We can serve our customers well only if our buying jobs are right. You cannot sell if you haven't ordered wanted goods into your store.
James Cash Penney

We get real results only in proportion to the real values we give.
James Cash Penney