Lee Iacocca Quotes
My father always used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life.
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.
You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere.
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.
The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being.
It's important to 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 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.
Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.
Management is nothing more than motivating other 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.
Trouble shared is trouble halved.
Every business and every product has risks. You can't get around it.
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?
The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.
The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.
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.
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.
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.
When the product is right, you don't have to be a great marketer.
How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.
The ability to concentrate and to use time well is everything.
In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.
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.
We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.
Any supervisor worth his salt would rather deal with people who attempt too much than with those who try too little.
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.
Variant:
The one word that makes a good manager - decisiveness.
There ain't no free lunches in this country. And don't go spending your whole life commiserating that you got 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."
The trick is to make sure you don't die waiting for prosperity to come.