Lee Iacocca famous 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?
-- Lee Iacocca

#Family #Wise #Humanity

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

#Inspirational #Motivational #Positive

The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Family #Cousin #Rocks

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

#Inspirational #Motivational #Business

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

#Motivational #God #Education

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

#Problem #Bigs #Solve

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

#Organization #Differences #Listening

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Party #Mean #America

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#School #Thinking #People

The trick is to make sure you don't die waiting for prosperity to come.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Wise #Money #Waiting

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Time #Discipline #Giving

We at Chrysler borrow money the old-fashioned way. We pay it back.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Money #Business #Pay

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Change #Business #Live Life

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Procrastination #Numbers #Good Man

The one word that makes a good manager - decisiveness.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Decision #Management #Economy

I was at Ford for 32 years. I went to Chrysler in 1978, four or five months after I got canned by Henry Ford.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Years #Four #Months

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

#Mistake #Listening #Made

What is it that you like doing? If you don't like it, get out of it, because you'll be lousy at it.
-- Lee Iacocca

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

#Decision #Too Late #Made

Be creative. Use unconventional thinking. And have the guts to carry it out.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Thinking #Creative #Use

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

#Marketers

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

#Years #Two #Looks

I don't need a $100 million mistake. Try to make a $5 million mistake if you have to make one.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Money #Mistake #Trying

I was good friends with Frank Sinatra, I heard Steve Kaufman painting his portrait, so I asked Steve to paint my portrait.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Good Friend #Portraits #Painting

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

#Funny #Stupid #Ignorance

The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Change #Positive #Lying

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Inspirational #Motivational #Two

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

#Priorities #Today #Succeed

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Motivational #Teamwork #Honesty

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Leadership #Funny Inspirational #Communication

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?
-- Lee Iacocca

#Fun #Responsibility #Mean

Management is nothing more than motivating other people.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Inspirational #Motivational #Positive

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

#Inspirational #Thank You #Education

The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Inspirational #Motivational #Inspiring

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Running #Government #Office

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

#Moving On #Procrastination #Starting Over

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

#Life #Motivational #Writing

The affections are like lightning: you cannot tell where they will strike till they have fallen.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Lightning #Affection #Economy

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

#Business #Work #People

Every business and every product has risks. You can't get around it.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Risk

I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.
-- Lee Iacocca

#People #Insightful #Way

I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Leadership #Hands #Important

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

#Taken #Decision #Too Late

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Positive #Perseverance #Thinking

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

#Legacy #Made #Should

Don’t just stand there; make something happen.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Things Happen

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

#Teamwork #People #Failing

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Jobs #Work #Successful

My father used to say, 'You can spend a lot of time making money. The tough time comes when you have to give it away properly.' How to give something back, that's the tough part in life.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Father #Giving #Tough Times

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Morning #Food #Forever

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.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Education #Teacher #Responsibility

The ability to concentrate and to use time well is everything.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Inspirational #Motivational #Positive

The ability to concentrate and to use your time well is everything if you want to succeed in business--or almost anywhere else for that matter.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Time #Succeed #Use

There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Leadership #Business #Knowledge

MBAs know everything but understand nothing.
-- Lee Iacocca

#Mba