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the engine

When Philip K. Wrigley succeeded his father as chairman of the Chicago-based chewing gum company, he continued the firm’s practice of heavily spending money on advertising to create and maintain consumer demand.   During an airline flight one day, a seatmate asked him why he continued to spend so much money on advertising a product that was already one of the best-known in the world.

Wrigley quickly replied, “For the same reason the pilot of this plane keeps the engine running when we’re already 29,000 feet up.” (Source: Louis E. Boone, “Quotable Business,” Random House).

What engine do you need to keep running?

  • For the church to stay in flight, individual believers must stay on mission.  Putting in a good word for Jesus is the fuel that keeps the engine running.
  • For a marriage to stay in flight, husbands and wives must work on the little things and deal quickly and directly with the big things.
  • For students to stay in flight, it requires an uncommon willingness to work hard and not settle for mediocre results.

What else?