Lee Iacocca > Quotes

“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

“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

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

“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

“We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluable problems.”
― Lee Iacocca

“In a completely rational society, the best of us would 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.”
― Lee Iacocca

“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

“Get all the education you can then go out and do something - do anything.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“I’ve always felt that a manager has achieved a great deal when he’s able to motivate one other person. When it comes to making the place run, motivation is everything. You might be able to 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.”
― Lee Iacocca

“Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then...do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.”
― Lee Iacocca

“The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.”
― Lee Iacocca

“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

“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. But He’s a charitable Lord: He only lets you see one day at a time. When times get tough, there’s no choice except to take a deep breath, carry on, and do the best you can.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“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

“When the product is right, you don't have to be a great marketer.”
― Lee Iacocca

“I always kept in mind my father’s warning: “If he’s bigger than you are, don’t fight back. Use your head instead of your fists.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“the discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen. In conversation, you can get away with all kinds of vagueness and nonsense, often without even realizing it. But there’s something about putting your thoughts on paper that forces you to get down to specifics. That way, it’s harder to deceive yourself—or anybody else.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. People come first. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“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, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“Although I was never a candidate, I learned a lot from all the presidential talk. Shortly after the whole business began, I was having a conversation with a guy in advertising. He said something interesting: “I’ve decided why everybody talks about you as a presidential candidate. It’s very simple. They don’t believe anybody anymore. You talk to them and you make them believe that you stand for something and then you pursue it. You don’t bullshit them, and the American public has been bullshitted too often.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“If I had to sum up in one word the qualities that make a good manager, I’d say that it all comes down to decisiveness.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“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.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“With a car, you can go anywhere you want.”
― Lee Iacocca, IACOCCA

“But one thing was perfectly clear: John was sacrificing himself to save the company. He was over his head and he knew it. Although it meant the end of his own career, he bent over backward to make sure that the transition would go as smoothly as possible. He blew himself out of the water to bring Chrysler back to life. And that is the test of a real hero.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“It seems that in the United States the one thing you can count on is that even during a depression, the rich get richer.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“But I do think that our national leadership consists of too many lawyers and not enough people from business. I’d like to see a system where we brought in twenty top managers to run the business side of the country and maybe even paid them $1 million a year, tax-free. That would be a real incentive, and then we’d see a lot more talented people interested in public life.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“Setbacks are a natural part of life, and you’ve got to be careful how you respond to them.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“The first is whether he’s lazy, and the second is whether he’s got any horse sense. There’s no qualitative analysis to check out whether he’s got some fire in his belly, or whether he will have savvy—or street smarts—when it comes to decision time.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“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. But He’s a charitable Lord: He only lets you see one day at a time.”
― Lee Iacocca, Iacocca: An Autobiography

“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