Quotes by Lee Iacocca

• 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.
• The one word that makes a good manager - decisiveness.
• The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.
• The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.
• The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being.
• The trick is to make sure you don't die waiting for prosperity to come.
• There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.
• Trouble shared is trouble halved.
• You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere.
• We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.
• We at Chrysler borrow money the old-fashioned way. We pay it back.
• We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?
• 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.
• Management is nothing more than motivating other people.
• 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.
• 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.
• The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.
• In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else.
• In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits.
• In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.
• My father always used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life.
• 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?
• People want economy and they will pay any price to get it.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• The ability to concentrate and to use time well is everything.
• The affections are like lightning: you cannot tell where they will strike till they have fallen.
• The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership.
• Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.
• 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.
• Any supervisor worth his salt would rather deal with people who attempt too much than with those who try too little.
• I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.
• I've always found that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team.
• If a guy is over 25 percent jerk, he's in trouble. And Henry was 95 percent.
• Every business and every product has risks. You can't get around it.