David Ogilvy is famous in the world of Madion Avenue. Time magazine once lauded him as a “wizard of advertising”. He started his career as a door-to-door salesman. Then moved into advertising, starting his own agency with just $6000. But he understood consumer behavior and what it took to take a small advertising business and turn it into one of the most successful agencies in the world, known today as Ogilvy.
Mr. Ogilivy wrote several books (Confessions of an Advertising Man is a personal favorite) and had plenty to say about starting a business, hiring good people, and getting attention from consumers. Here are a few of the inspirational things he’s said that apply directly to starting a small business today:
“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.”
“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.”
“If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.”
“The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.”
“In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.”
—David Ogilvy
