E. Joseph Cossman

“Expose yourself to the products and promotions of other manufacturers, and your own field of new ideas will greatly increase.”

“If you try to make money doing something you're not enjoying, it's a hard way to make money.”

“When I returned to the United States after three years of World War II service, my total assets consisted of one wife, one small daughter, $276 in the bank, and an idea. The idea was for an export business to supply items badly needed everywhere in Europe.”

“If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.”

“Drive-in banks were established so most of the cars today could see their real owners.”

“Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves.”

“For products with revision possibilities, there is no better source available than a company going out of business!”

“You can have the best product in the world, you can have the best motivation in the world, you can have best education in the world, you can have all the money in the world - but if you don't have direction, you'll never go anywhere.”

“The criteria, the only rule you should follow - the only rule - is to never touch a product or service unless, every time it is sold, part of the profit has to come back to you.”

“Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.”

“This country is conducive to making money. Once you learn this lesson and make your first deal, you will really appreciate the tools available to you in the United States, the tools that will help you 'boot-strap' yourself into a large income.”

“Many past products advertised in old publications can be profitably promoted all over again. Sometimes, just by giving them a new twist or modern application, you'll hit a real winner.”

“If you are ready to put a product or service on the market, look at that product or service and see how you can test it inexpensively. Keep in mind, you'll only need one; you don't need 1,000 to get the answer.”

“Making $30,000 on my first business deal was exciting, but not as exciting as the sudden knowledge that I did not have to work for anyone again.”

“Square meals often make round people.”

“'Salaryitis' is when you become so accustomed to that salary that you no longer have the gumption to pull out of the rut and strike out on your own. It destroys the nerve of ambitious, imaginative men, and bowing to it has meant sure defeat for more people than any other sickness, mental or physical.”

“The greatest power is often simple patience.”

“Starting in business is like getting married... there is really no good time and no bad time. The time is now.”

“Since it is not granted to us to live long, let us transmit to posterity some memorial that we have at least lived.”

“Middle age is when your broad mind and narrow waist begin to change places.”