Smiling Richard Sears was a fantastic salesman.
His amazing ads convinced thousands of people to send him money.
But his customers had a difficult time getting what they ordered from him, often receiving incorrect items or being told what they had ordered was out of stock. But in spite of these problems, Richard’s ads continued to generate orders faster than they could be shipped from his warehouses.

He fell behind… 30 days, 60 days, then 90 and 120.
That’s when Julius Rosenwald stepped in to solve Richard’s problem by creating a system that would allow Sears to accurately handle up to 100,000 orders a day. Annual sales rocketed from $750,000 in 1895 to more than $50 million in 1907. Julius was asked to become president of the company in 1908. Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States. Booker T. Washington was their mutual friend.

Immediately upon assuming the presidency of Sears, Julius introduced money-back guarantees and insisted that all future advertising be honest in its descriptions of the company’s products. “Sell honest merchandise for less money and more people will buy,” Julius said. “Treat people fairly and honestly and generously and their response will be fair and honest and generous.” It was under the leadership of Julius Rosenwald that Sears became one of the world’s most successful corporations.