Words matter. These are the best Gerry Harvey Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
You could go out and give a million dollars to a charity tomorrow to help the homeless. You could argue that it is just wasted. They are not putting anything back into the community.
I’ve given away tens of millions of dollars over the years – probably to almost every charity in Australia.
I’ll be amazed in my lifetime if my business gets to being 5 per cent online.
Some analysts think people come into our shops and then go and buy the product on the Internet, but the manufacturer knows if the customer can’t see the product and assess it, they won’t buy.
If a company in Australia has to pay tax and the other one doesn’t, of course it’s a disadvantage.
The internet thing is what I have the greatest problem with. I don’t know if anyone in the media gets the internet thing and Harvey Norman. I think they have some strange interpretation of it that bears no resemblance to what actually happens.
What I think is that we should be helping people so they can reach an even greater potential.
I try to develop others. I get a great deal of joy out of helping people who, over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time mentoring – and just trying to get them to another level.
All I can say to you, if you look after your health, eat the right stuff, do enough exercise, keep your mind active, you might be around when you’re 100 having this conversation with someone.
At the end of the day, the more quality individuals you develop in the community, the better off the community should be.
The cost to do business in Australia is higher, and the lack of scale is a part of that – Australia is a very small market compared to the U.S.
Making decisions quickly isn’t for everyone, and I’ve had my disasters, but overall, it works for me.
For me, anyone who is over 80, I generally sit down and have a chat to because he is over 80, and he is going OK.
I think the main thing you measure your success by is what you do in comparison to your opposition. If you’re in an industry where you’re the leader, then you’re performing very well.
That’s not in my nature to run away – I’ll stand up and fight.
I’m probably not your typical business person in many ways. I don’t wear a suit. I don’t carry a briefcase. I don’t wear a tie. I’m fairly casual. I haven’t got a big office, and it’s in a very ordinary part of town. I’d much prefer to downplay than impress.
People don’t just come to work to make money; they need satisfaction.
I get a lot of comments from people that I’m just an ordinary bloke. They immediately feel they have a closer relationship with you; they relate to you.
If I think something is right, I’ll fight for it – always have. If it’s wrong or I’ve been proved wrong, I’ll walk away, and I’ll apologise.
We’re good at what we do because we’re a family – this is in our bloody DNA; this is what we do.
Kids go to school; we develop them at school. We develop them later on in the workplace so that we get better quality individuals, so that we get less people that are dependent or get into problems.
If you do genuinely care about people and love them a little, eventually you all have this common goal about where you want to go. They see it, and they believe it, and they become believers with you, and you can achieve wonderful things.
I had a trial run with Norman Ross for 21 years, from ’61 to ’82. I didn’t have it in mind to open a chain like Harvey Norman. I opened one shop, but then the next thing you know, I’ve got another shop and then another shop.
I was talking to Rupert Murdoch the other day at a lunch, and he said, ‘Maybe I’ll live to 100’. He actually thinks he will live to 100!
I’m hoping there’ll be, if not a boom, then a big pick-up in housing because if that happens, then it will employ a lot of people, and the domino effect will go through the community, and it will help everyone.
The political system is broke. It doesn’t matter who the leader is if you are frozen in time and your hands are tied. Social media is so strong that minority groups get a huge say.
Importantly, I still give money to homeless people – and all other charities.
People are out there saying we have to devalue our properties because of the Internet, but it hasn’t even come into play!
Society might have been better off without them, but we are supposed to look after the disadvantaged, and so we do it. But it doesn’t help the society.
Everybody, be they female, whatever your religion, whatever your nationality, you’re an individual, and if you perform well, we want you, and if you don’t, we don’t.
