Lee Iacocca Quotes

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?

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.

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

In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have.

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.

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

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.

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.

Listening can make the difference between a mediocre organization and a great one.

Over the years, many executives have said to me with pride: 'Boy, I worked so hard last year that I didn't take any vacation.' I always feel like responding, "You dummy. You mean to tell me you can take responsibility for an eighty-million-dollar project and you can't plan two weeks out of the year to have some fun?

The right decision is the wrong decision if it's made too late.

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

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 only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.

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.

Mistakes are a part of life; you can't avoid them. All you can hope is that they won't be too expensive and that you don't make the same mistake twice.

There's no great mystery to satisfying your customers. Build them a quality product and treat them with respect. It's that simple.

To solve big problems you have to be willing to do unpopular things.

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

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.

Don’t just stand there; make something happen.

What is it that you like doing? If you don't like it, get out of it, because you'll be lousy at it. You don't have to stay with a job for the rest of your life, because if you don't like it you'll never be successful in it.

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.

If I Had To Sum Up In One Word The Qualities That Make Up A Good Manager, I'd Say Decisiveness.

A major reason capable people fail to advance is that they don't work well with their colleagues.

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.

The one word that makes a good manager - decisiveness.

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.

Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.

If we screw it up, start over. Try something else.

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.

Your legacy should be that you made it better than it was when you got 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.

If you set a good example you need not worry about setting rules.

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.

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

The only mistake I ever made was not listening to my gut.

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.

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.

Are we going to be a services power? The double-cheeseburger-hold-the-mayo kings of the world?

Leadership means setting an example. When you find yourself in a position of leadership, people follow your every move.

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

Business, after all, is nothing more than a bunch of human relationships.

In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits.

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.

It pains me to see my old company, which has meant so much to America, on the ropes. But Chrysler has been in trouble before, and we got through it, and I believe they can do it again... Let's face it, if your car breaks down, you're not going to take it to the White House to get fixed. But, if your company breaks down, you've got to go to the experts on the ground, not the bureaucrats.

MBAs know everything but understand nothing.

To succeed today, you have to set priorities, decide what you stand for.

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.

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.