A biography for John Schnatterhasn’t been written yet.
“If the people buying the pizza are happy, they'll probably buy the pizza again.”
“If you don't take care of the people doing the heavy lifting, they will burn your castle down.”
“I think if there was a sharing in the ups, a sharing in the downs, the country would not be as divided.”
“When you start off broke - and we weren't broke, we were negative broke - you never forget that. You stay appreciative.”
“I didn't like the bar business.”
“In school, I always had to work harder than others.”
“I am the American Dream.”
“It was Labor Day weekend in 1983, and Dad hired me to run Mick's Lounge, a bar he co-owned, for $200 a week. The business was nearly bankrupt. But I said, 'Dad, I can fix it.' It was the most natural thing I'd ever done. It just made sense to me.”
“You have to make mistakes to get better. I used to make a mistake, and I kind of get down on myself. And now I make a mistake, and I go, 'Okay, did you learn from this? Did you stick to the facts, and did you stick with the logic? Did you have the analytics?'”
“I have a goal of being the No.1 pizza company in the world.”
“Companies like Papa John's are largely a collection of small independent businesses.”
“I love my business. I love my employees.”
“Regardless of what the minimum wage is, you really have the market wage. And if we're not taking care of our people, then we're going to lose good talent, at every level.”
“I pay myself three, three and half million - which is plenty of money, c'mon.”
“The original goal for Papa John's was to make $50 grand a year and have $50 grand in the bank so I could get a date.”
“The board gets upset because I won't take a raise, but I've got plenty of money.”
“You've got to have free markets with limited government, with the proper amount of regulation where you don't jam entrepreneurship.”
“I realized the world spins without me having to spin it.”
“I just don't like making mistakes.”
“Find something you love to do. Work it to the bone. And you'll be successful.”