"Supply always comes on the heels of demand"
About this Quote
A publisher saying this isn’t offering a neutral law of economics; he’s handing you a playbook for persuasion. “Supply always comes on the heels of demand” flatters the reader with a sense of control: stop waiting for the world to hand you opportunities and start manufacturing the hunger that forces opportunity to appear. The line is compact because its promise is big - create desire first, and the machinery of money, attention, and logistics will scramble to catch up.
Collier’s context matters. As a publisher in the early-to-mid 20th century, he lived inside the era’s booming mail-order culture, advertising copy, and self-improvement capitalism, where “demand” wasn’t just discovered; it was engineered. The subtext is almost managerial: if you’re staring at an empty pipeline, the problem isn’t supply, it’s that you haven’t generated a compelling want. That’s a marketer’s worldview smuggled into a proverb.
The phrasing does extra work. “Always” is bravado, the kind that sells. “On the heels” makes demand sound like the lead runner and supply the breathless chaser, a vivid reversal of the everyday complaint that resources are scarce and gatekeepers are immovable. Collier is betting on a social truth: crowds, capital, and institutions move fastest not toward what’s “needed,” but toward what’s loudly, visibly desired.
It’s also a quiet warning. If demand is the engine, then whoever shapes demand effectively shapes reality. That’s empowering in business and unnerving in politics, where creating “demand” can slide into manufacturing consent.
Collier’s context matters. As a publisher in the early-to-mid 20th century, he lived inside the era’s booming mail-order culture, advertising copy, and self-improvement capitalism, where “demand” wasn’t just discovered; it was engineered. The subtext is almost managerial: if you’re staring at an empty pipeline, the problem isn’t supply, it’s that you haven’t generated a compelling want. That’s a marketer’s worldview smuggled into a proverb.
The phrasing does extra work. “Always” is bravado, the kind that sells. “On the heels” makes demand sound like the lead runner and supply the breathless chaser, a vivid reversal of the everyday complaint that resources are scarce and gatekeepers are immovable. Collier is betting on a social truth: crowds, capital, and institutions move fastest not toward what’s “needed,” but toward what’s loudly, visibly desired.
It’s also a quiet warning. If demand is the engine, then whoever shapes demand effectively shapes reality. That’s empowering in business and unnerving in politics, where creating “demand” can slide into manufacturing consent.
Quote Details
| Topic | Business |
|---|
More Quotes by Robert
Add to List
