John Hertz Quotes
105 John Hertz Quotes
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[In January 1925 on giving his Yellow Cabs manufacturing employees 40 percent of the net takings, a bonus for good-driving records, insurance and allowing them to purchase stock in the company.] There has never been a strike in one of my plants since then. There never will be one. Not every man can go to work in our plants or drive our cabs, because we demand a good record and high character; and once a man gets in there’s nothing can pry him loose.
John Hertz
I think sometimes the employer who is rich is likely to forget that the men who work for him are human beings. We have 6,500 employees in Chicago now on a profit-sharing basis, 4500 of them driving cabs, and they are happy in their jobs. Bankers told me when I started out to do this that I was a wild-eyed radical. I’m not a radical and never was.
John Hertz
I’d like to hire a ship and send back to their own countries the men who are complaining about American conditions and American institutions. Every one of these fellows has a better opportunity here to lead a happy and prosperous life than he had in his own country, wherever it may have been. The best thing that ever happened to me was that my father went broke in the mountains north of Buda-Pesth and decided to make a new start in this country. I came here as a foreigner, and this country not only tolerated but encouraged me. It will do the same for every other immigrant who is willing to work to succeed.
John Hertz
[In January 1925] The old days of grabbing everything in sight under municipal franchises have passed. Our Chicago bus franchise is for twenty years, and we are not worried about a renewal because we intend to give the best service we can. The public is the customer of the public utility, and if the public isn’t pleased, the business isn’t a utility, however fat its franchise. I decided at the outset that it didn’t pay to fight with city councils or the people who ride in busses. If you ask for a fair franchise, beneficial alike to the city and to the operator, and then give fair value for the fair, you are on the road to prosperity.
John Hertz
[In 1922] We are living in a motor age. And we must have not only motor age education, but a motor age sense of responsibility.
John Hertz
[In 1922] We fear the ‘jay walker’ worse than the anarchist, and Chicago is his native home.
John Hertz
[In September 1930] A champion race horse or a leader in industry, I have found, is seldom a result of chance. Concentration upon quality – that’s what counts.
John Hertz
[In September 1930] Quality is everything – and the American people demand and appreciate the best.
John Hertz
[In November 1933] I’m not a financier. I’m not a banker. I’m just an operator. One of the first things I found out was that the public appreciates good service and will be glad to pay for it if the price is right.
John Hertz
Perhaps if I had not become the manager of Benny Yanger I might now be a struggling newspaper writer. Now I am enjoying a prominent place in the pugilistic world as a manager and my protege is earning about $10,000 a year. This is but a prelude to the story of how little things sometimes affect the lives of well known people.
John Hertz
I don't call it ability to take a young 122 pound pugilist to the top rounds of the ring ladder inside of two years without a defeat, but I do call the success of the Tipton Slasher something marvelous. Never in the history of prize fighting in America has there been a character as strange as this young man who has not been beaten. He does not drink, abstains from tobacco, loves his home - and he supports a big family - keeps a bank account and is looking to the day when he can engage in business more to his liking than boxing.
John Hertz
When I assumed the task of managing him - and managers of boxers have to exercise as much acumen if they wish to make successful business deals for their charges as do business men - I found him willing to obey my instructions to the letter. He contracted to do his end of the work - to train faithfully and to make every post a winning one and the critics unite in saying that he is the easiest of the well known boxers to handle. I never knew Yanger to get angry at any action. He never objected to terms made by his manager and when financial matters were adjusted he never went out to throw his money over the bar. Once a newsboy, but a clever one, he used every opportunity to pick up the education and has aspirations for a university course some day when he can afford to leave the ring, Yanger might go into the parlor of a refined family, and carry on a conversation with the lady of the house without arousing the suspicion that he was a boxer.
John Hertz
[In August 1904] Yanger and I will part the best of friends. Since I took up Benny, after his third professional fight, he has earned over $73,000 in the ring.
John Hertz
[In 1913] We are operating at a loss and must throw in the sponge unless we can get the City Council to permit us to raise our rates.
John Hertz
In Chicago, a party will engage one of our cabs to take them to South Shore Country Club, the Edgewater Beach Hotel, or some other distant point and return without picking up a passenger. That condition is what broke our predecessors. We have been operating at a loss, and I'm telling you confidentially that we can't go any further unless we can get an increase in rates to stay in effect until such time as our cabs can get passengers on their return trips. When that condition prevails, we will voluntarily reduce our rates. If the City Council does not enact an ordinance to allow us to make a fair increase in our rates, we are through, and Chicago will again be without a taxicab service.
John Hertz
Mr. Hermann, I have taken this matter up with several aldermen, and I feel quite certain that we can succeed in getting such an ordinance passed, but all seem to think that Mayor Harrison will veto it, so we cannot get anywhere unless we have the mayor's assurance that he will sign such a bill. Now, I am wondering if you could see your way clear to explain our troubles to the mayor and try to obtain that assurance from him.
John Hertz
[In January 1921 Yellow Cab Manufacturing beginning the manufacture and distribution of passenger cars and light trucks after having been turning out 2,000 Yellow Cabs each year. And the star product will be a 12 cylinder car called ‘The Ambassador’.] The most beautiful car ever made.
John Hertz
[In January 1921] In planning these new cars, we forgot entirely the element of price and remembered only one thing, an ideal. We decided to build automobiles and trucks which would have more than one season, more than two, more than three or four, in fact, and still remain good, serviceable outfits.
John Hertz
I analysed my assets and my qualifications, and concluded that I had nothing but my wide acquaintanceship in the sporting world.
John Hertz
I had won several amateur boxing tournaments at the Chicago Athletic Association and I could see no course open to me except to become manager of some prize fighter.
John Hertz
I could see no course open to me except to become manager of some prize fighter… This I did.
John Hertz
[On giving up being a boxing manager.] I was making fairly good money and was getting a lot of experience, but my girl vowed that she would not marry me until I gave up this kind of life.
John Hertz
My girl vowed that she would not marry me until I gave up this kind of life. As I simply could not think of living long without her, I began looking around for other work.
John Hertz
I knew a chauffeur who was acting as a demonstrator for an automobile agency…
John Hertz
I should be able to capitalize my friendship with patrons of sport and others by becoming an automobile salesman.
John Hertz
Yes I got married.
John Hertz
I made only $800 the first year…
John Hertz
The second year I made $12,000…
John Hertz
[In his third year.] I earned $13,500…
John Hertz
I sold more than the manager and seven or eight salesmen combined.
John Hertz
I was determined that my wife’s folks should not be in a position to point their finger at us….
John Hertz
If one of my customers had a breakdown at 2 o’clock in the morning he knew that all he had to do was to telephone me…
John Hertz
I would be on my way to help him out…
John Hertz
Cars broke down rather often in those days…
John Hertz
I bought supplies for them at cost…
John Hertz
[For his customers] I… did everything I could for them.
John Hertz
My customers sold most of my cars for me.
John Hertz
My customers weren’t buyers of second-hand cars…
John Hertz
I had to put on my thinking cap…
John Hertz
[On the second hand cars left over after he sold new ones.] Find some way of disposing them or making them earn their keep.
John Hertz
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