He’s often given credit for having said “There’s a sucker born every minute,” but the truth is P.T. Barnum probably never said those words. He was one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 1800s and you don’t get there by disrespecting your customers. What he probably said was something like “There’s an opportunity born every minute.”

That’s the way I look at publicity and you should too if you want to market without spending money.

Barnum was always looking for ways to capture people’s attention. At one point he had an elephant plowing the field on his property. The reason? The field was near the train that took people into New York City. Instead of seeing passengers, Barnum saw potential customers. He knew an elephant would grab their attention and act as an unforgettable publicity stunt. It worked. “Newspaper reporters came from far and near, and wrote glowing accounts of the elephantine performances,” Barnum wrote. “The six acres were plowed over at least sixty times before I thought the advertisement sufficiently circulated.”

Barnum was a genius at generating publicity. He became globally famous and incredibly wealthy by knowing how to befriend the media. In his last known letter, written five days before he died in 1891, he wrote, “I am indebted to the press of the United States for almost every dollar which I possess.”

The Barnum & Bailey Circus still carries his name. Of course, a lot has changed since Barnum traveled the world with his outlandish curiosities, but his passion for publicity should be an inspiration to anyone who wants to be extraordinary. My favorite Barnum quote is still as true today as it was a century and a half ago: “Without promotion something terrible happens… Nothing!”