Jeffrey R. Immelt famous quotes

03-23-2025

I'm an optimist. I've always believed the future is going to be better than the past. And I also believe I have a role in that. The great thing about human beings, myself in particular, is that I can change. I can do better. If you can get up every day, stay optimistic, and believe the future is better than the past, those few things get you through a lot of tough times.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Inspirational #Believe #Optimistic
In business as in life, sometimes bad things happen to good people, and sometimes good things happen to bad people. But over time, if you play long enough, everybody gets what he deserves.. good and bad.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Business #Play #Long
Managing innovation better may be the only way out of the abyss called commodity hell.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Innovation #May #Way
The best thing you can give as a leader is a reason to trust. People want to trust. They're hungry for it. But they're selective. They'll only give it to a motivator, a communicator, a teacher, a real person. Someone who in good times and bad always does the right thing.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Leadership #Teacher #Real
Surviving a failure gives you more self-confidence. Failures are great learning tools.. but they must be kept to a minimum.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Business #Self Confidence #Giving
Enron and 9/11 marked the end of an era of individual freedom and the beginning of personal responsibility.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Responsibility #Eras #Individual
There is no real magic to being a good leader. But at the end of every week, you have to spend your time around the things that are really important: setting priorities, measuring outcomes, and rewarding them.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Real #Priorities #Leader
I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and my parents are really right wingers. My dad watches, like, five or six hours of Fox News every day and stuff like that.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Dad #Ohio #Parent
People ought to invest in us because they like our company and the way they run it. We still do quarterly earnings guidance, but we tell people openly that they ought to look at the company for the long term and that's how they ought to invest.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Running #Long #People
I love working with customers. Sales has really influenced everything I do. It has instilled in me the important traits of operating with a sense of urgency and listening to people.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#People #Listening #Important
Work hard with passion and courage. Life is a marathon of contribution. You really must work hard to accomplish something... Find your passion and get good at it.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Hard Work #Passion #Marathon
Good leaders don't tell people what to do, they give teams capability and inspiration.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Leadership #Team #Inspiration
The most important thing I've learned since becoming CEO is context. It's how your company fits in with the world and how you respond to it.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Important #World #Becoming
Leadership is an intense journey into yourself. You can use your own style to get anything done. It's about being self-aware. Every morning, I look in the mirror and say, 'I could have done three things better yesterday.'
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Morning #Journey #Mirrors
I'm out talking about this company (General Electric) seven days a week, 24 hours a day, with nothing to hide. We're a 130-year-old company that has a great record of high-quality leadership and a culture of integrity.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Integrity #Years #Talking
I've been seeing the change. It's been steady. It's been more controlled than people think. And my own belief is that China knows it also needs to be part of the world, and that it needs to be able to have trade with Europe and the United States in order to house and feed a billion people. That's really kind of single-mindedly what they see their role as being.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Change #Thinking #Order
I was never afraid of failure. I realized that I was responsible for my own success and that every day offers a new beginning and I was confident in my ability to improve.
-- Jeffrey R. Immelt

#Attitude #New Beginnings #Responsible

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