Success Quote by Percy Ross

Percy Ross is selling something here, and it isnt just charm. In a business culture that loves to fetishize toughness and "no" as proof of seriousness, he argues for a softer weapon: wit with a purpose. The line reads like a field memo from someone who spent decades watching gatekeepers mistake rigidity for principle. "Clever, imagination, humorous" stacks three levers that bypass the usual defenses. Cleverness signals competence, imagination suggests value beyond the standard pitch, humor lowers the threat level. Together they reframe a request from an intrusion into an invitation.

The intent is practical: persuasion as design, not pressure. Ross is famous for publicity-forward generosity and attention-grabbing stunts; his worldview assumes that people are reachable if you can change the frame. Thats the subtext: closed doors are rarely locked by logic alone. Theyre guarded by ego, fatigue, status, and fear of being taken for a sucker. A straight demand triggers those alarms; a playful, well-crafted ask offers face-saving room to say yes.

Context matters because the advice is almost a critique of corporate piety. Business often pretends decisions are purely rational, yet Ross points to the social reality: access is negotiated, not granted. The phrase "closed minds" broadens it from tactics to ethics. Humor becomes a kind of civil disobedience against bureaucratic certainty, a way to slip new ideas past the bouncers in our heads. The line works because it treats persuasion as human contact, not conquest.