Top 100 Lee Iacocca Quotes
#1. I was at Ford for 32 years. I went to Chrysler in 1978, four or five months after I got canned by Henry Ford.
Lee Iacocca
#2. Any supervisor worth his salt would rather deal with people who attempt too much than with those who try too little.
Lee Iacocca
#3. Every little kid wants to grow up to be a cowboy, and I did.
Lee Iacocca
#4. I'm still not sure what is meant by good fortune and success. I know fame and power are for the birds. But then life suddenly comes into focus for me. And, ah, there stand my kids.
Lee Iacocca
#5. Incompetency begets incompetency. The last thing a guy who isn't sure of himself wants is a guy backing him up who is sure of himself.
Lee Iacocca
#6. The ability to concentrate and to use time well is everything.
Lee Iacocca
#7. 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.
Lee Iacocca
#8. In the great undertakings, there is glory, even in failure.
Lee Iacocca
#9. Don't just stand there; make something happen.
Lee Iacocca
#10. I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.
Lee Iacocca
#11. 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. - Lee Iacocca
Lee Iacocca
#12. I guess I invented extended warranties, because that's all we had to sell at Chrysler in those days.
Lee Iacocca
#13. Be creative. Use unconventional thinking. And have the guts to carry it out.
Lee Iacocca
#14. If I Had To Sum Up In One Word The Qualities That Make Up A Good Manager, I'd Say Decisiveness.
Lee Iacocca
#15. Decisiveness is the one word that makes a good manager.
Lee Iacocca
#16. If you own up to your mistakes, you don't suffer as much. But that's a tough lesson to learn.
Lee Iacocca
#18. In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.
Lee Iacocca
#19. Your legacy should be that you made it better than it was when you got it.
Lee Iacocca
#20. Life can be difficult for kids born with a gold spoon in their mouth, because they never really get to find out if they're able to work hard and make it on their own.
Lee Iacocca
#21. If you make believe that ten guys in pin-striped suits are back in a kindergarten class playing with building blocks, you'll get a rough picture of what life in a corporation is like.
Lee Iacocca
#22. The one word that makes a good manager - decisiveness.
Lee Iacocca
#23. Here's what we should be doing. We've got to get off fossil fuels.
Lee Iacocca
#24. 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.
Lee Iacocca
#25. The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.
Lee Iacocca
#26. Chrysler invented rebates, I'm sorry to say. I didn't have anything to do with that. A lot of flaky deals were made in order to give the customer enough cash for a down payment.
Lee Iacocca
#27. They're on you day and night. Their oversight is just too extreme [ ... ] That's why our 10-year loan, we paid it back in three years. We couldn't stand the government. The bureaucracy kills you.
Lee Iacocca
#28. To succeed today, you have to set priorities, decide what you stand for.
Lee Iacocca
#29. 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.
Lee Iacocca
#30. If you set a good example you need not worry about setting rules.
Lee Iacocca
#31. In business, I loved cars. I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning. Only in America can you decide to get a good education and pursue what you like.
Lee Iacocca
#32. Bad times are indelible. They stay with you forever.
Lee Iacocca
#33. A guy named Charlie Beacham was my first mentor at Ford. He taught me the importance of the dealers, and he rubbed my nose in the retail business.
Lee Iacocca
#34. I've got to get stop getting fired like this. People will start to think I'm a drifter.
Lee Iacocca
#35. As you go through life, there are thousands of little forks in the road, and there are a few really big forks-those moments of reckoning, moments of truth.
Lee Iacocca
#36. You, my friend, alone are equal to a hundred of such friends. Happy Birthday to you.
Lee Iacocca
#37. No matter how I'm doing financially, the Depression has never disappeared from my consciousness. To this day, I hate waste. When neckties went from narrow to wide, I kept all my old ones until the style went back to narrow.
Lee Iacocca
#38. The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.
Lee Iacocca
#39. The right decision is the wrong decision if it's made too late.
Lee Iacocca
#40. 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.
Lee Iacocca
#41. That's the American way. If little kids don't aspire to make money like I did, what the hell good is this country?
Lee Iacocca
#42. In the old days, if a neighbors apples fell into your yard, you worked it out over the back fence or picked them up and made pies. Today, you sue.
Lee Iacocca
#43. A major reason capable people fail to advance is that they don't work well with their colleagues.
Lee Iacocca
#44. The affections are like lightning: you cannot tell where they will strike till they have fallen.
Lee Iacocca
#45. It was emotional when Chrysler sold out to the Germans.
Lee Iacocca
#47. In a corporation, there can only be one guy in the end: the CEO.
Lee Iacocca
#48. Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then ... do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.
Lee Iacocca
#49. There are times in everyone's life when something constructive is born out of adversity ... when things seem so bad that you've got to grab your fate by the shoulders and shake it.
Lee Iacocca
#50. 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?
Lee Iacocca
#51. Styling cars sells cars and safety does not.
Lee Iacocca
#52. We load up on oat bran in the morning so we'll live forever. Then we spend the rest of the day living like there's no tomorrow.
Lee Iacocca
#53. I only wish I could find an institute that teaches people how to listen. Business people need to listen at least as much as they need to talk. Too many people fail to realize that real communication goes in both directions.
Lee Iacocca
#54. I don't need a $100 million mistake. Try to make a $5 million mistake if you have to make one.
Lee Iacocca
#55. Every business and every product has risks. You can't get around it.
Lee Iacocca
#56. What is it that you like doing? If you don't like it, get out of it, because you'll be lousy at it.
Lee Iacocca
#57. People want economy, and they'll pay any price to get it.
Lee Iacocca
#58. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else.
Lee Iacocca
#59. I'd really love to meet the guy I'm supposed to be. I'd hire him in a second.
Lee Iacocca
#60. The cement in our whole democracy today is the worker who makes $ 15 an hour. He's the guy who will buy a house and a car and a refrigerator. He's the oil in the engine.
Lee Iacocca
#61. I was good friends with Frank Sinatra, I heard Steve Kaufman painting his portrait, so I asked Steve to paint my portrait.
Lee Iacocca
#62. You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere.
Lee Iacocca
#63. To solve big problems you have to be willing to do unpopular things.
Lee Iacocca
#64. If your product is great, you yourself do not have to be a great seller.
Lee Iacocca
#65. Listening can make the difference between a mediocre organization and a great one.
Lee Iacocca
#66. There's no great mystery to satisfying your customers. Build them a quality product and treat them with respect. It's that simple.
Lee Iacocca
#67. Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.
Lee Iacocca
#68. One of the things the government can't do is run anything. The only things our government runs are the post office and the railroads, and both of them are bankrupt.
Lee Iacocca
#69. The only mistake I ever made was not listening to my gut.
Lee Iacocca
#70. The great issues facing us today are not Republican issues or Democratic issues. The political parties can debate the means, but both parties must embrace the end objective, which is to make America great again.
Lee Iacocca
#71. I guess that's one achievement I'm really proud of. Saving Chrysler was more than jobs, more than shareholder value. Saving Chrysler was a good idea for the whole country.
Lee Iacocca
#72. Thanks to properly selecting the clients you will not be unnecessarily wasting time.
Lee Iacocca
#73. There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.
Lee Iacocca
#74. In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits.
Lee Iacocca
#75. The primary skill of a manager consists of knowing how to make assignments and picking the right people to carry out those assignments
Lee Iacocca
#76. It's a good thing god doesn't let you look a year or two into the future, or you might be sorely tempted to shoot yourself.
Lee Iacocca
#77. What is wrong with changing your mind because the facts changed? But you have to be able to say why you changed your mind and how the facts changed.
Lee Iacocca
#78. Management is nothing more than motivating other people.
Lee Iacocca
#79. 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.
Lee Iacocca
#80. I learned that monthly payments are the cornerstone of everything in the automobile business.
Lee Iacocca
#81. I always go back to Harry Truman: Should we drop an atomic bomb to save 100,000 lives? That's a hell of a decision to make. Did he make that decision by himself? No, he had advisers.
Lee Iacocca
#82. I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership.
Lee Iacocca
#83. 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.
Lee Iacocca
#84. In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else.
Lee Iacocca
#85. Never rest on your oars as a boss. If you do, the whole company starts sinking.
Lee Iacocca
#86. We at Chrysler borrow money the old-fashioned way. We pay it back.
Lee Iacocca
#87. Greenmail, in case you're wondering, is when a company pays a raider a premium for his holdings-if he'll go away. What I think it really is is blackmail in a pin-striped suit.
Lee Iacocca
#88. I was fortunate to get a scholarship when I went to Lehigh University and Princeton. They were both wonderful schools. Somebody was kind enough to spend their money to educate people that they would never get to know. That's what I think philanthropy is about.
Lee Iacocca
#89. 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.
Lee Iacocca
#90. There's a billboard in a little farm town in the Midwest that says: IF YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT FARMERS, DON'T TALK WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL.
Lee Iacocca
#91. I learned about the strength you can get from a close family life. I learned to keep going, even in bad times. I learned not to despair, even when my world was falling apart. I learned that there are no free lunches. And I learned the value of hard work.
Lee Iacocca
#92. Here's what management is about: Pick good people and set the right priorities.
Lee Iacocca
#93. Get all the education you can then go out and do something - do anything.
Lee Iacocca
#94. Formal learning can teach you a great deal, but many of the essential skills in life are the ones you have to develop on your own.
Lee Iacocca
#95. My father used to say, 'You can spend a lot of time making money. The tough time comes when you have to give it away properly.' How to give something back, that's the tough part in life.
Lee Iacocca
#96. Most people are looking for security, a nice, safe, prosperous future. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's called the American Dream.
Lee Iacocca
#97. Business, after all, is nothing more than a bunch of human relationships.
Lee Iacocca
#98. Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?
Lee Iacocca
#99. When future historians look back on our way of curing inflation ... they'll probably compare it to bloodletting in the Middle Ages.
Lee Iacocca
#100. Leadership means setting an example. When you find yourself in a position of leadership, people follow your every move.
Lee Iacocca
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