The Story of America’s first Spiritual Marketer

You think you have it rough today?

Yes, there’s war, poverty, depression, recession, economic uncertainty, competition, unfair business practices, and more.

I’m sure if you read today’s newspaper, and/or watched today’s news, you could get yourself depressed thinking about the current situation.

I’m sure if you went online and researched all the people selling a product or service similar to your own, you could also get yourself into a funk.

But let me ask you a question:

Is it really that bad?

Play along with me here…

Imagine it’s 1902.

You’re in a small town in Wyoming. Yes, Wyoming. Not exactly Chicago or New York City. Population is only 3,000 people. They are mostly miners. They don’t make much cash. And you can imagine what they do with it on payday.

There are 22 saloons in your city willing to take the miner’s hard-earned money –on credit.

But let’s paint the full picture here:

You don’t have a phone, fax, computer, radio, television, or the Internet.

You don’t have any money for newspaper advertising.

You’re virtually poor yourself, with a wife and child to feed.

Your goal is to open a store selling clothing – at a discount.

And no one believes you can pull it off.

Every business owner, banker, and most of your family and friends say you’re nuts.

What are your chances for success?

Would you even attempt this enterprise?

Consider….and be honest with yourself….

Would you try to do business in that 1902 environment?

Truth is, I’m not sure I would, and I’m a pretty positive thinking kind of guy.

But a man with a vision can’t be stopped.

(Remember that.)
A young man with a vision who in fact did start a small store in Wyoming in 1902, under all the conditions just spelled out, went on to create an empire that’s still around today.

I’m talking about J. C. Penney.
Yes, the man who founded the famous department stores you can find in every major city (over 1,000 of them today) and where you probably bought your pants.

J. C. Penney rose from nothing to create a chain of stores originally called "The Golden Rule." He made a fortune, and lost all of it -- $40,000,000 -- in the Great Depression of 1929. But he also went on to become successful again, though never controlling the renamed company he began.

He loved people, was deeply religious, and made the people who ran his stores partners, not employees.

Clearly, this was a man different from others who walked the earth at his time in life.

The store Penney opened in Kemmerer, Wyoming on April 14, 1902, was a oneroom frame building located between a laundry and a boarding house off the main business district of the town.

He and his family lived in the attic over the store. The store was furnished with shelves made from packing crates.

Before opening, Penney studied the town, its people and their needs. (Research always pays off.) His store was called “The Golden Rule” because it emphasized the very principle he lived. Virtually everyone in business said he would fail, especially when Penney opposed taking credit on moral grounds. Yet the sales for the first day totaled $466.59 and for the first year totaled $28,898.11.

Obviously, people liked the honesty of the 27-year-old visionary.

And what a vision he had.


The Vision:
Penney envisioned a chain of stores that would cover the Rockies. To him, “The Golden Rule” represented more than a marketing strategy. It represented his deeper spiritual beliefs. It became the credo of his business. He insisted on offering customers quality merchandise at the lowest possible prices.

What a concept!

The strategy and the vision worked.

People loved it.
"Exchange ideas frequently. If you and I exchange dollars we are no better off — each of us still has a dollar. If we exchange ideas we each have two ideas where we had one before. What you gave you have. What I got you did not lose. Share your ideas — you will not become poorer — both of you will be the richer for the mutual exchange." -- J. C. Penney, a speech on salesmanship, 1934

At the end of 1912, there were 34 “Golden Rule Stores” with sales exceeding $2 million. (Imagine the wealth that represents even today, in 2005.)

In 1913, the chain incorporated under the laws of the state of Utah as the J.C. Penney Company, Inc. Penney himself was opposed to the new name, but his partners outvoted him.

Still, Penney, the company and the man, maintained their spiritual vision to serve people.

In 1913 his company mission statement was:
"To serve the public as nearly as we can to its complete satisfaction.

1. To expect for the service we render a fair remuneration and not all the profit the traffic will bear.
2. To do all in our power to pack the customer's dollar full of value, quality and satisfaction.
3. To continue to train ourselves and our associates so that the service we give will be more and more intelligently performed.
4. To improve constantly the human factor in our business.
5. To reward men and women in our organization through participation in what the business produces.
6. To test our every policy, method and act in this wise: Does it square with what is right and just?"

As you can see, even his mission statement was unique.

(Thought: Can you adapt it for your own business?)

J.C. Penney is worth study and modeling today. That’s why I’ve written this Special Report, which may be the first written work on him from a business viewpoint.

I’ve found that Penney cared about people to a degree rarely seen in any business.

For example, when his company was considering whether to accept credit cards or not, Penney said it would ultimately hurt the people, as it would encourage overspending.

He was right, but the old gentleman was the sole vote in a company he no longer controlled. He was over-ruled.

Still, you can sense his concern. While most people would be focused on all the ways to get money from their customers, Penney didn’t want to make a profit at the expense of his customers’ well-being.

This is rare.

(Ask yourself: Are you trying to drain your customers of their every dime, or are you just trying to serve them while making a little profit for doing so?)

Penney was a deeply religious man, raised by a Baptist preacher who taught him self-reliance at an early age. Penney was told he had to earn his own money for anything he wanted when he was eight years old. Talk about self-reliance!

Penney later confessed in his autobiographical book, View from the Ninth Decade, that his father’s announcement, “…came as an awful shock…I went to bed feeling utterly cast off, and by my own father!”

But this strict upbringing and early training in self-reliance made him sensitive to the needs of others. It seems it was more than religious for Penney; it was also spiritual.

This very outlook helped Penney help others, too, as you’ll see in this next section.


Sharing Wealth
I’ve often said that wealth gives you the means to help others, too. This is a very spiritual experience. Penney lived it, as well. For example:

In 1923, Penney established a 120,000-acre experimental farming community in northern Florida named Penney Farms. Some 20,000 acres were subdivided into small plots where industrious, moral, but economically destitute farmers could live and work
until they could rebuild their lives.

Next to Penney Farms, he established the Memorial Home Community — a 60-acre residential community for retired ministers, lay church workers, missionaries, their wives and families — at a personal cost of more than $1 million.

Penney lost virtually all of his fortune in the stock market crash of 1929, which became known as the Great Depression. While this event certainly knocked the man on his rear emotionally and financially, it did not stop him.

In 1954, after he had rebuilt his fortune, Penney established a second charitable foundation — the James C. Penney Foundation — which remains active today. This family foundation supports organizations addressing issues of community renewal, the environment, and world peace.

Obviously, Penney the man knew how to use his mind and his spirit to create wealth, and to use that wealth to help others.
He once said:

"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."

Obviously, J. C. Penney had a goal. It was to help the world. In his 95 years, he did his best. His name lives on today. He made history.

Penney was still coming to the office three days a week when he was 95.

(Note: Visionaries tend to regard work as a calling, not a vocation.)

He often expressed his desire to live to be 100 years old. But on December 26, 1970, he suffered a fall in his Park Avenue apartment that left him with a fractured hip. After weeks of recuperation, he died of a heart attack on February 12, 1971.

His middle name was Cash.