itself provides him with stimulation of thought without intoxication,
and thereby it serves to give the refreshment of mind which an author must have to do his best work.”
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Whoever you are Asa Candler (1851-1929) was one of the most imaginative salesmen and marketing geniuses the world has ever seen.
In 1891
he quit his Atlanta, Georgia, drugstore, took a poorly selling stimulant and headache remedy he bought the right to, and went onto make it known worldwide—as The Real Thing He worked hour days, slept only five hours at night, and was an indefatigable spokesman and pitchman for his product.
He was fond of saying, “A
sale of Coca-Cola lost today is not a sale that maybe made tomorrow,”
and if one of his customers wanted only a single gallon of Coca-Cola syrup, he would prepare it himself just to make the sale. He passed out free Cokes on elevators. He gave businesses free Push and “Pull”
signs with the Coke logo printed on them to goon their doors. His advertising budget was bigger than his sales for several years, and by Coca-Cola had become America’s best-advertised consumer product, with Coke ads on 2.5 million square feet of walls of buildings in the nation.
Candler was a prototypical Think and Grow Rich entrepreneur.
He set and wrote goals for everything. He set sales goals by the month—both sequentially and year by year. He never started a business meeting without first writing down how he wanted the meeting to be resolved.
A devout Methodist, Candler also wrote down his spiritual goals—such as his prayer topics and Bible readings….
When Candler made a plan, he stuck by it. He didn’t think he could fail. He refused to accept it,’[Elizabeth Candler, his great-great- granddaughter Graham said. He lacked formal training, but he was always searching for ways to expand his mind. As a teenager, landing
a job as a pharmacy clerk, he read medical books and studied Latin and Greek at night. All told, it was Candler’s determination—not his training or intelligence—that built his business and made him a success (Michael Tarsala, “Coca-Cola’s Asa Candler
Investor’sBusiness Daily, February 1, 1999, p. A) Candler, like so many successful entrepreneurs who amass great fortunes, spent the last years of his life as a philanthropist donating to hospitals, orphanages,
and educational institutions. He gave $8 million—more than million in today’s dollars—to Emory University in Atlanta.
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