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 enney's first stores did not bear his name
but were called The Golden Rule stores. He bought his first in the small
mining community of Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1902. There he competed for
customers with 21 saloons.
In the midst of the Great Depression, one of America's leading businessmen
sank into a personal depression of his own. Now in his fifties, James
Cash Penney had already built an empire of dry goods stores, dedicated
to following the Golden Rule as a basic commercial principle. But when
the economy caved in during the 1930s, Penney lost nearly everything--including
his health.
I have found that unselfishness pays because it tends to engender unselfishness. --J. C. Penney
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His parents had instilled in him a basic Christian faith that had given
him the principles on which he had based his life and his business, yet
now that faith was being tested. "I was at the end of my rope," he said
later. "My business had crumbled, my communications with colleagues had
faltered, and even my . . . wife and our children were estranged from
me. It was all my fault." He was even contemplating suicide.
An old friend convinced him to enter a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan.
The rest and medical attention did him good, but there was another event
that restored him spiritually. One morning he awoke too early for breakfast
and was wandering the corridors when he heard a hymn he remembered from
childhood.
Be not dismayed whate'er betide,
God will take care of you
All you need he will provide
God will take care of you
Following the sound, he stumbled upon a chapel filled with worshiping
doctors and nurses. Someone read a Scripture passage: "Come unto me all
you that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It was a moment of
clarity for the hard-working entrepreneur. He had been striving all his
life to honor God with his business, but now it was time to rest in the
Lord's grace. "At that time something happened to me which I cannot explain,"
he said later. "It was a life-changing miracle, and I've been a different
person ever since. I saw God in his glory and planned to be baptized and
to join a church."
Over the next twelve hours, he experienced a kind of conversion. "Suddenly
needing to be heard, I cried inwardly, 'Lord, will you take care of me?
I can do nothing for myself!' . . . I felt I was passing out of darkness
into light." The words "only believe" came to him. It was no longer about
his own efforts, but God's. "In the midst of failure to believe, I was
being helped back to believing."
Humble
Beginnings
James Cash Penney (yes, that was his full name) learned about faith and
business from his father, who served as the pastor of a small Primitive
Baptist church in Hamilton, Missouri, and struggled to make a living off
the family farm. At age 8, young Jim was told he would have to start buying
his own clothes and earning his own money. Life was tough, his father
said, and success only came through hard work and long hours. But things
would turn out all right, he was told, if he just followed the Golden
Rule, treating others with fairness and respect.
But things weren't working out so well for the elder Penney. He strongly
urged his church to start a Sunday school, and that was an unpopular position
there. As a result, the church dismissed him. That experience soured young
Jim on the organized church. His faith would remain a personal thing most
of his life.
As a teenager, J. C. Penney worked on surrounding farms growing watermelons
and feeding pigs. Shortly after Jim graduated from high school, his father,
dying of tuberculosis, asked a friend to give his boy a steady job. So
J. M. Hale, who owned a dry goods store in Hamilton, agreed to hire Jim
at a salary of $2.27 a month. The young man worked hard as a clerk and
learned all he could about the business. He seemed to have a knack for
merchandising. Within two years, his pay increased twelve-fold.
Then came stunning news from his doctor. The TB that had claimed his
father's life was now threatening him. The best thing for him was to move
to a drier climate. So he moved to Colorado, buying a butcher shop in
Longmont. That business hit hard times when he refused to give free liquor
to his biggest client.
Then two significant things happened to J. C. Penney. He met a man who
got him back into the dry goods business, and he met a woman who stole
his heart. The business, called "The Golden Rule Store," gave him an exciting
new commercial concept. The woman, named Berta, consented to marry him.
Guided by the love of his new wife and the Golden Rule principle, the
inspired young businessman began a journey that would take him to undreamed
of success.
Out on His Own
After clerking in one store, he helped a partner start a new store, and
eventually he bought a Golden Rule store of his own in Kemmerer, Wyoming,
in 1902. While he recognized that the Golden Rule was a "slogan of good
publicity value," his also found it "a poignant link with my father's
and my mother's ideals and injunctions." In his business practices he
believed that with a basic aim of making money he could still serve the
larger community with fair values and honest dealings.
He was just 26 when he bought that first store, in a mining town with
a population of about 1,000. The company store (and the 21 saloons in
town) offered credit, but Penney's store was cash-only. He felt he served
the community better by keeping them from becoming indebted. Within five
years, Penney opened two more stores, then three more. There were more
than 30 within that first decade. Penney followed a training strategy
that allowed managers to become part owners and then purchase their own
stores. That's what his bosses had done for him, and now he returned the
favor to others. Not only did this contribute to company morale, it allowed
for steady expansion of a chain of stores that held to Penney's original
principles.
Ups and Downs
The business incorporated in 1913 as J. C. Penney and Company, Inc. (unscrupulous
competitors had begun to use the Golden Rule name), adopting seven business
principles of fair pricing and good service. The seventh principle was
"To test our every policy, method, and act in this wise: 'Does it square
with what is right and just?'" More than a thousand stores were launched
in the Roaring Twenties, and the growth even continued during the Depression.
But Penney's own fortunes were not so bright. While the company prospered,
he lost a bundle that he had invested in banks and real estate. That's
what put him in the Michigan sanitarium in 1932.
In the years following his epiphany in that hospital chapel, Penney spoke
often of that experience. He talked about the mistakes he made in trusting
success rather than God. Privately, he mentioned his desire to be baptized
and to join a church, but he put off those commitments until 1942 and
1950.
His financial fortunes began to be restored in the mid-1930s. As that
happened, he renewed his support of various charities, putting millions
of dollars into the Penney Retirement Community in Penney Farms, Florida,
Christian Herald magazine, and more than 100 other organizations ministering
in the United States and around the world.
He lived and served until he was 95, frequently sharing a Bible verse
he had memorized as a child and claimed as his favorite: "I have trusted
in the Lord without wavering. Prove me, O Lord, and try me. Test my heart
and my mind. For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I will walk
in faithfulness to you" (Psalms 26:1-2).
From an ad for the Golden Rule Store, 1908
We are at home here. We are here to stay; we like the country--its
people; we believe in selling you good dependable goods on a Small Margin
of Profit Only. We will supply you with durable and comfortable wearing
apparel cheaper than ever before. You will get BIG VALUES for your money
at this store. Let competition say what she will. A comparison of values
is all we ask. We have grown--are growing, like no other store in the
country. For your own sake we should have your business. . . . Our aim
is to sell you Reliable, Staple, Dependable Merchandise at a less price
than any other house in the country.
The assumption was that business is secular, and service is religious.
I have never been able to accept that line of arbitrary demarcation.
. . . Is not service part and parcel of business? It seems to me so;
business is therefore as much religious as it is secular. If we follow
the admonition to love God, and our neighbors as ourselves, it will
lead us to understand that, first of all, success is a matter of the
spirit. --J. C. Penney
Editorial Note
Glimpses generally focuses on historical figures who have changed the
church or affected the world in some overtly Christian way. In that light,
some might question our decision to spotlight J. C. Penney. This man was
not a religious leader--he didn't even join a church until he was in his
70s--but he was a business leader. So are we writing about him simply
because he was a Christian who happened to be rich and famous?
No!
In recent years, we have witnessed a steady stream of corporate executives
defrauding their companies and stockholders. Surveys have found our nation's
business schools at a loss to find an adequate philosophical basis on
which to teach business ethics. In such a climate, the Biblical outlook
and principles of J. C. Penney are a breath of fresh air.
Though his faith was individualistic, Penney had a strong commitment
to Christian principles, and he tried to incorporate these principles
in his business. Too many Christians, rich and poor and in between, have
separated their spiritual lives from their business lives. In a way, Penney
was conducting a grand experiment, testing his hypothesis that the Christian
commitment to love others could be played out in one's entire life, including
one's daily work.
Christian principles will not necessarily make you rich. Sometimes they
may make you poor. But they need to be lived out in every aspect of life.
This issue was based largely on the book The Spiritual Journey of
J. C. Penney, by Dr. Orlando L. Tibbetts, published by Rutledge Books
(1-800-278-8533 or www.rutledgebooks.com). |
