B. Wayne Hughes quotes: the Public Storage founder’s finest words.
“If you don’t enjoy it, you probably could find a better business. If you enjoy it, then just go slow at the beginning until you know more. With good luck, you can make money. But life isn’t all about just making money. Life’s about enjoying things and having good feelings. You can make money in the business; I’m making money. But it’s not going to be easy, and you’ve got to have a little luck.”
“You don’t get money unless you have a lot of talent, which I don’t have, or you work hard, which is what I do. We don’t have any golden touch here.”
“In 1972, I had an idea: people have too much stuff and nowhere to keep it. So I bought some land in San Diego and put up a building with 200 self-storage spaces. After that it was just building the units up, one at a time. For years and years. That’s all.”
“I believe in a merit nation, an opportunity nation, where people by virtue of their education and hard work and risk-taking and their dreams – and maybe a little luck – could achieve great things.”
“Have you read The Grapes of Wrath? That was my family. My dad was a sharecropper in western Oklahoma. When the dust storms came and everything got wiped out, they came to California. The guys with the mattresses on the tops of their cars in the movie? That was the way it was.”
“I bought a farm because I thought my grandkids would like to come visit me on a farm because that’s what I would have liked when I was a child. I bought the farm for the wrong reason, and it turned out that I made a business out of it and made it much more interesting for me. So, I’d say buying Spendthrift. We’re basically a caretaker there. Spendthrift Farm is a piece of history, and I’m very proud to be one of the pieces of that history.”
“I’m the craziest guy. I’m buying horses and I’m not going to know if they’re good enough to be in the stallion barn until I’m 90 years old.”
“I have no fancy living at all. Well, I have a house in Sun Valley. Five acres in the woods. I guess that’s fancy.”
“I don’t spend any time at all thinking about my personal wealth. I suppose if I had nothing, I might think, ‘I have nothing.'”
“I once asked the magazine to remove my name. It’s an imposition. Forbes should not be doing that. It’s the wrong thing to do. It puts my children and my grandchildren at risk.”
“I’m a little surprised to find out that I’m an enemy of the state at this time in my life. They talk about your ‘fair share.’ ‘Are you paying your fair share?’ Fair is in the eyes of the beholder. I hope I don’t come off like some big person… so conservative… I believe in spreading it around, but I believe in doing it myself.”
“When we decided to go public and I saw how much money there was, I was very surprised.”
“[Regarding Parker Hughes Cancer Center in Minnesota] This is my passion in life. If you want to see the real world, go visit the Children’s Hospital cancer ward. I don’t have the brain-power to help but I can put up the money for those who do.”
You may also like Bill Gates quotes and Warren Buffett quotes.
