Lee Iacocca Quotes
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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.
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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.
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Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.
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MBAs know everything but understand nothing.
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My father always used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life.
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It was a marriage made in heaven. The ads created a lot of buzz, and sales rose 24.7 percent in July.
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In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits.
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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.
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The one word that makes a good manager - decisiveness.
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We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?
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I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.
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Are we going to be a services power? The double-cheeseburger-hold-the-mayo kings of the world?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Chrysler builds great cars.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The only mistake I ever made was not listening to my gut.
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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.
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If you can find a better car, buy it.