Lee Iacocca Quotes
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I'm sometimes described as a flamboyant leader and a hip-shooter, a fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants operator. But if that were true, I could never have been successful in this business.
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I was at Ford for 32 years. I went to Chrysler in 1978, four or five months after I got canned by Henry Ford.
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If a guy is over 25 percent jerk, he's in trouble. And Henry was 95 percent.
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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.
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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.
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If it hadn't been for Henry Ford's drive to create a mass market for cars, America wouldn't have a middle class today,
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People want economy and they will pay any price to get it.
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The ability to concentrate and to use your time well is everything.
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Boys, there ain't no free lunches in this country. And don't go spending your whole life commiserating that you got the raw deals. You've got to say, "I think that if I keep working at this and want it bad enough I can have it." It's called perseverance.
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Styling cars sells cars and safety does not.
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To solve big problems you have to be willing to do unpopular things.
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In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else.
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I gotta tell ya, with our $2.4 billion in profits last year, they gave me a great big bonus. Really, it's almost obscene.
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If I Had To Sum Up In One Word The Qualities That Make Up A Good Manager, I'd Say Decisiveness.
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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.
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Every little kid wants to grow up to be a cowboy, and I did.
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Bad times are indelible. They stay with you forever.
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I learned that monthly payments are the cornerstone of everything in the automobile business.
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In business, you're trying to make a buck. God was good to me and blessed me. I made some money and started this foundation years ago, and it has grown in size. With the foundation it's a lot different, because the bottom line isn't how you can make more money or get a better return, it's helping the projects that you feel strongly about move forward.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.
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From what I've seen, you either get grounded in that kind of positive thinking early on in life or you don't. Establishing priorities and using your time well aren't things you can pick up at the Harvard Business School. 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.