Will Keith Kellogg Quotes
106 Will Keith Kellogg Quotes
1 2 3
[On disputes with his brother John Harvey Kellogg when the Sanitarium at the time had a gross annual business of $4,000,000.00] I think we only had three eruptions. The major one was between 2:00 and 3:00 [am] in the morning and over a seventy-five-cent item.
Will Keith Kellogg
He [John Harvey Kellogg] sent over a sample of boiled wheat, and wanted me to make something like it, but he did not know just the length of time to boil it. My instructions from him were to boil a quantity for fifteen minutes, another for twenty, twenty-five, and thirty, and up to one hour. These experiments I did in the kitchen of the sanitarium, on the range, at night, when I had finished my other work. After it was boiled, the Doctor took it to another part of the basement where there was a set of smooth rollers which had been used to grind Granola.
Will Keith Kellogg
For some reason the Doctor thought best to take the flakes after they had been nicely formed, put a sieve over a barrel and break the flakes up and rub them to pieces. It was my own suggestion that the flakes be allowed to remain whole and be served in that way.
Will Keith Kellogg
About 1898 the health food business, without advertising or promotion of any sort, was continuing to grow. Orders were coming in so rapidly with so little effort on the part of anyone that it seemed to me there was a great future for the food business if it could be conducted as a company and separately from the sanitarium. Dr. [John Harvey] Kellogg and others did not seem to believe at the time that the business was susceptible of being developed.
Will Keith Kellogg
I recall having offered a suggestion that, in my opinion, if given the opportunity, the food company would develop in such a manner that the sanitarium would be only a side show as to the magnitude of the food business. I confess at the time I little realized the extent to which the food business might develop in Battle Creek.
Will Keith Kellogg
I did the work as business manager of the sanitarium and got no glory and very little money… In our food business the Doctor and I were doing business together. Some of the formulae he worked out, some I did, and he made suggestions and I made suggestions, and I think he took most of the credit for the work I did. I wrote a great many hundreds of notes for experiments to be conducted, and I have never claimed any glory – the Doctor has claimed that.
Will Keith Kellogg
[On a loan that he asked a half-niece to sign with him. Probably to pay for the building of the factory that was needed due to the food boom which had cost $50,000.00. His brother then insisted that he hadn’t authorized the expenditure and that he would have to pay for it.] If I don’t pay this and my other debts within three months, I will lose everything I have in the world.
Will Keith Kellogg
The corn flake business was not a success from the first. The formula was changed and it was not made twice alike; the machinery was not satisfactory. It was some time after the first experiments before the product was really marketable.
Will Keith Kellogg
I want to sell these corn flakes by the carload. I’m not interested in a mail order business.
Will Keith Kellogg
What would you think of calling these flakes ‘Kellogg Corn Flakes’ instead of Sanitas Corn Flakes, and then using a signature somewhere on the package similar to the attached?
Will Keith Kellogg
The only thing that I am interested in is the business that will result.
Will Keith Kellogg
I wanted to play the game fair and square.
Will Keith Kellogg
[On his factory burning down on the Fourth of July 1907 only a little more than one year after starting due to firecrackers.] I want all you men to report here tomorrow morning. You will not be laid off.
Will Keith Kellogg
[To a prominent official of the Sanitarium who had sold his Kellogg stock too early after the very successful rise in the stock price and good sized dividends including stock splits.] Let’s see, now. If you had held on to your several hundred shares, they now would be worth ‘umpteen’ thousand dollars.
Will Keith Kellogg
[On the short-term ninety day loan of $30,000 after the factory had burned down to supplement the $64,000 fire insurance proceeds] I showed them our statement and the banker said, ‘We have to take chances same as other people. Your statement is good.’
Will Keith Kellogg
We helped you get started in the cereal roll business. Now you’ve got to help us!
Will Keith Kellogg
[On his new modern fireproof factory six months after the fire had burnt it to the ground] Now we can turn out 4,200 cases a day and that’s all the business I want.
Will Keith Kellogg
[On neither W. K. Kellogg nor John L. Kellogg drawing a salary for 12 months] Every day, George McKay (then treasurer of the Kellogg Company, and later chairman of the Board of the Security National Bank in Battle Creek) and I would go through a horrible stack of unpaid bills, deciding which ones to pay immediately and which ones to postpone. We’d write the creditors and say ‘Here is a check for so much; another check will be sent on such and such a date.’ Instead of losing our credit rating, we actually improved it. We were in debt, but we bought a reputation for keeping our promises.
Will Keith Kellogg
[During one of the company’s darkest hours the attorney of a competitor calling saying that his leading competitor was interested in buying him out and wanted him to name a price for his company.] Tell our competitor we’re interested in buying their company. Tell them to name the price. [Sixty days later his company was back in the black and his bankers telling him it was the most remarkable comeback they had ever seen.
Will Keith Kellogg
Double our advertising budget! This is the time to go out and spend more money in advertising.
Will Keith Kellogg
When you get to be a father… you will be better prepared to appreciate some things which you cannot appreciate fully at this time.
Will Keith Kellogg
I don’t think this conveyor is going to be practical. [‘Why?’] Because I think it is going to break up our flakes. I am sorry to tell you but we will try the conveyor out no longer than necessary to see whether it is practical or not. [He turned out to be right and they had to junk the machine.]
Will Keith Kellogg
[On one sales manager mistakenly telephoning him whilst he was vacationing in California and saying ‘Times are bad here right now. Business is going to the dogs.’ He was immediately sacked because] The company can’t afford to have in charge of its sales a man with that pessimistic attitude. Such pessimism would be communicated to our salesmen.
Will Keith Kellogg
[On being told by his company treasurer that ‘Well, these books indicate that you are worth a million dollars!’] I am no such thing. Well, I never expected to be worth that much.
Will Keith Kellogg
[In 1930 in a speech to long-time company employees] In the early days we passed through many strenuous times and had many anxious hours, not always knowing where funds were coming from to take care of the next week’s payroll. I never, at any period of my life, aspired to become wealthy, but the fierce competition perhaps developed a fighting spirit, and in the effort to secure our share, the business succeeded. It is my hope that the property that kind Providence has brought me may be helpful to many others, and that I may be found a faithful stewart.
Will Keith Kellogg
[In 1927 on three employees brining a mysterious new cereal for him to try] You’ve got something there. That will be a successful product. [The product was ‘Rice Krispies’.]
Will Keith Kellogg
[To the Mayor William Penty on setting up a six hour day at the Battle Creek Plant during the Great Depression] If we put in four six-hour shifts, instead of three eight-hour shifts, this will give work and paychecks to the head of three hundred more families in Battle Creek.
Will Keith Kellogg
[To his grandson] Some day you’ll be at the head of this growing business…
Will Keith Kellogg
[In November 1931 at the age of 71 to his grandson] Suggestions for one who wishes to hit the trail successfully, make the grade, play the game and win: 1) First of all, get plenty of sleep and recreation and try to have your nerves in such a condition that you will not be working under a tension. 2) At no time appear to be rushed, even if you are in a deuce of a hurry; the impression is bad. 3) Do not scatter your ammunition; concentrate and you may get your bird. 4) Finish as far as possible one job before taking up another. 5) Do not have too many tag ends. In other words, have few irons in the fire at one time 6) Try to lead the other fellow; do not push him. 7) Do not dominate your elders. Age gives people lots of experience. 8) In conversation with people forget the word ‘I’. 9) Have patience with people. If things seem to go wrong occasionally, remember that time cures many things. 10) Do not dictate to your elders; better endure and let the other fellow boss. After all is said and done, we are all striving for results. 11) Consider the feelings of the other fellow and remember to do as you would like to be done by. 12) Keep your feet on the earth and your head up, but not too high in the sky. 13) Be kind to all, but choose carefully your friends. 14) Remember it took six days for Jehovah to create the earth. We should not try to reconstruct it in any less time. 15) Be humble.
Will Keith Kellogg
Open her up to seventy or eighty so that the other cars can’t pass us.
Will Keith Kellogg
I have to have those times when I can be alone, when I must have a room to myself where I can spend some time thinking undisturbed.
Will Keith Kellogg
[On encouraging his offspring to make their own way in the world without financial assistance from others] A Kellogg should always be successful.
Will Keith Kellogg
[To being teased about his Sanctuary for Waterfowl he established on 180 acres in 1928] If I ever catch you in my preserve shooting any of the birds, I will prosecute you to the full extent of the law.
Will Keith Kellogg
I am going to talk to you on the level.
Will Keith Kellogg
I pay my dues.
Will Keith Kellogg
[On being asked why he didn’t come to the Rotary Club regularly.] I am not going to lie to you. There is too much tobacco smoke in the atmosphere down there.
Will Keith Kellogg
I am conscious of having made many mistakes.
Will Keith Kellogg
Shall be eighty my next birthday and I think it is high time that I get out of business and quit making mistakes. [He did not decline being re-elected to the board of directors for another six years – If effect retiring at the age of 86]
Will Keith Kellogg
I need what friends I have.
Will Keith Kellogg
I would give the world to be able to get along with people as well as you do.
Will Keith Kellogg
1 2 3
Return from Will Keith Kellogg Quotes to
Quoteswise.com