Lee Iacocca Quotes (61 Quotes)


    Never rest on your oars as a boss. If you do, the whole company starts sinking.

    The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.

    I thought I was retired from commercials, ... But I think Chrysler will be a great help to me. That's why I did it it creates great awareness.

    Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can't miss.

    Every little kid wants to grow up to be a cowboy, and I did.


    In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else.

    We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?

    I'm here today because our country needs a change in leadership, ... We need a leader who is really dedicated to creating millions of high-paying jobs all across the country.

    No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?

    The ability to concentrate and to use your time well is everything.

    The trick is to make sure you don't die waiting for prosperity to come.

    The kind of people I look for to fill top management spots are the eager beavers, the mavericks. These are the guys who try to do more than they're expected to do - they always reach.

    I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership.

    The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being.

    We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.

    We believe the combination of these two companies will produce very powerful synergies and puts us on a solid platform from which we should be able to realize our full growth potential.

    In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.

    The biggest mistake in my life was hiring Eaton as chairman without checking him out first, ... I didn't know him and hired the wrong guy, an error of judgment. When you make a bad people choice it hurts a lot of people for a long time.

    So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don't sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.

    The most successful businessman is the man who holds onto the old just as long as it is good, and grabs the new just as soon as it is better.

    If I had to sum up in a word what makes a good manager, I'd say decisiveness. You can use the fanciest computers to gather the numbers, but in the end you have to set a timetable and act.

    My father always used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life.

    You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere.


    The one word that makes a good manager - decisiveness.

    Every business and every product has risks. You can't get around it.

    Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can't be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people.

    Most people are looking for security, a nice, safe, prosperous future. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's called the American Dream.

    We at Chrysler borrow money the old-fashioned way. We pay it back.

    Talk to people in their own language. If you do it well, they'll say, 'God, he said exactly what I was thinking.' And when they begin to respect you, they'll follow you to the death.

    I've always found that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team.

    Boys, there ain't no free lunches in this country. And don't go spending your whole life commiserating that you got the raw deals. You've got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it bad enough I can have it. It's called perseverance.

    When future historians look back on our way of curing inflation they'll probably compare it to bloodletting in the Middle Ages.

    Any supervisor worth his salt would rather deal with people who attempt too much than with those who try too little.

    The affections are like lightning: you cannot tell where they will strike till they have fallen.

    Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.

    He was eccentric. He was no prince in his social attitudes and his politics. But Henry Ford's mark in history is almost unbelievable.

    Management is nothing more than motivating other people.

    I have always found that if I move with seventy-five percent or more of the facts that I usually never regret it. It's the guys who wait to have everything perfect that drive you crazy.

    If a guy is over 25 percent jerk, he's in trouble. And Henry was 95 percent.

    If it hadn't been for Henry Ford's drive to create a mass market for cars, America wouldn't have a middle class today,

    There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.

    The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.

    He's just a good kid. I didn't understand half the things he was telling me, but it was fun.

    I have found that being honest is the best technique I can use. Right up front, tell people what you're trying to accomplish and what you're willing to sacrifice to accomplish it.

    If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most important and then give it all you've got.

    You've got to say, ''I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it.'' It's called perseverance.

    The ability to concentrate and to use time well is everything.

    MBAs know everything but understand nothing.

    There are times when even the best manager is like the little boy with the big dog, waiting to see where the dog wants to go so he can take him there.


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