Success Quote by Harvey S. Firestone

Firestone’s provocation lands like a salesman’s dare: stop worshipping the stuff that looks like power and start respecting the thing that actually moves it. Coming from a titan of early American industry, the line is less starry-eyed than tactical. In the age of mass production, capital was already becoming a commodity you could borrow, attract, or partner for; “experience,” too, could be hired, bought via expertise, or learned on the factory floor. Firestone is demoting the prestige signals and elevating the lever.

The subtext is a quiet argument about leverage and timing. Money and résumé authority feel decisive because they’re measurable, legible, and socially validating. Ideas are messy: they’re harder to audit, easier to steal, and often arrive before institutions are ready. Firestone reframes that discomfort as the point. Ideas are the scarce input, the one thing competitors can’t instantly purchase at market rate. Capital follows a credible plan; experience accumulates around a working model. He’s describing a sequence, not a hierarchy: concept first, then resources.

Context matters: Firestone built an empire in tires when the automobile was rewriting American life. That kind of period rewards people who can see around corners, not just people with deep pockets. The quote also doubles as a recruiting pitch to would-be entrepreneurs and employees: don’t self-disqualify for lacking the “proper” credentials. The catch is implied: if ideas matter most, you’re responsible for having good ones - and for executing them ruthlessly enough that the money and talent come looking.