"I like business because it is competitive. Business keeps books. The books are the score cards. Profit is the measure of accomplishment, not the ideal measure, but the most practical that can be devised. I like business because it compels earnestness. Amateurs and dilettantes are shoved out. Once in you must fight for survival or be carried to the sidelines. I like business because it requires courage. Cowards do not get to first base. I like business because It demands faith. Faith in human nature, faith in one's self, faith in one's customers, faith in one's employees. I like business because it is the essence of life. Dreams are good, poetical fancies are good, but bread must be baked today, trains must move today, bills must be collected today, payrolls met today. Business feeds, clothes and houses man. I like business because it rewards deeds and not words. I like business because it does not neglect today's task while it is thinking about tomorrow. I like business because it undertakes to please, not to reform. I like business because it is orderly. I like business because it is bold in enterprise. I like business because it is honestly selfish, thereby avoiding the hypocrisy and sentimentality of the unselfish attitude. I like business because it is promptly penalized for its mistakes, shiftlessness and inefficiency. I like business because its philosophy works. I like business because each day is a fresh, adventure."
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People from New York (state)People from ClevelandAuthors from the United StatesPublishers from the United States
Original Language: English
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"Why I Like Business" in Manitowoc Herald-Times (21 July 1927), p. 3
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Feather
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William Feather
William A. Feather (25 August 1889 - 7 January 1981) was an American publisher and author, based in Cleveland, Ohio, where he published The William Feather Magazine.
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