Best 38 quotes of Herb Kelleher on MyQuotes

Herb Kelleher

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    Everybody in Texas would tell me that they thought I was nuts trying to start Southwest Airlines. There probably weren't 10 people in the state who would have given a plug nickel for our chances of making a dollar. So sometimes, you need a little courage, too, just to buck popular opinion.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    Hire for attitude, train for skill.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    If employees aren't satisfied, they won't promote the product we need.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    I forgive all personal weaknesses except egomania and pretension.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    If the employees come first, then they're happy. A motivated employee treats the customer well. The customer is happy so they keep coming back, which pleases the shareholders. It's not one of the enduring green mysteries of all time, it is just the way it works.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    If the Wright brother were alive today Wilbur would have to fire Orville to reduce costs.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    If you create an environment where the people truly participate, you don't need control. They know what needs to be done and they do it. And the more that people will devote themselves to your cause on a voluntary basis, a willing basis, the fewer hierarchies and control mechanisms you need.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    If you're crazy enough to do what you love for a living, then you're bound to create a life that matters.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    I learned it by doing it, and I was scared to death.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    I'm here to tell you that I am proud of a couple of things. First, I am very good at projectile vomiting. Second, I've never had a really serious venereal disease.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    I think my greatest moment in business was when the first Southwest airplane arrived after four years of litigation and I walked up to it and I kissed that baby on the lips and I cried.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    It is my practice to try to understand how valuable something is by trying to imagine myself without it.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    It takes nerves of steel to stay neurotic.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    I've found that many of the greatest ideas surface in bars because that's where many people cultivate inspiration.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    Keep costs low and spirits high, and the people of Southwest Airlines will keep LUV in the air.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    Leading an organization is as much about soul as it is about systems. Effective leadership finds its source in understanding

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    One piece of advice that always stuck in my mind is that people should be respected and trusted as people, not because of their position or title.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    People with different personalities, different approaches, different values succeed not because one set of values or priorities is superior but because their values and practices are genuine.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    Positions and titles mean absolutely nothing. They're just adornments; they don't represent the substance of anybody. Every person and every job is worth as much as any other person and any other job.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    Power should be reserved for weightlifting and boats, and leadership really involves responsibility.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    Succession planning has been a major priority at Southwest for quite some time. We think we have come up with a winning combination of talent for our company reorganization.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    The essential difference in service is not machines or 'things.' The essential difference is minds, hearts, spirits, and souls.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    The important thing is to take the bricklayer and make him understand that he’s building a home, not just laying bricks.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    The more time I spend with our people, the more I find out about our business.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    The people of Southwest have always been my pride, my joy and my love. Their indomitable dedication and esprit de corps have taken Southwest from a three-airplane dream to a 500-airplane reality.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    The tragedy of our time is that we've got it backwards, we've learned to love techniques and use people.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    The Wright Amendment is a pain in the ass, but not every pain in the ass is a constitutional infringement.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    Think small and act small, and we'll get bigger. Think big and act big, and we'll get smaller.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    Treat your employees like customers.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    We have a strategic plan. It's called 'doing things'.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    We have the best customer satisfaction record, based on Transportation Dept. statistics, of any airline in America, the fewest complaints filed per 100,000 passengers carried. So you're not just getting low fares, you're also getting wonderful customer service.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    We will hire someone with less experience, less education, and less expertise, than someone who has more of those things and has a rotten attitude. Because we can train people. We can teach people how to lead. We can teach people how to provide customer service. But we can't change their DNA.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    Wild Turkey whiskey and Philip Morris cigarettes are essential to the maintenance of human life!

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    You have to have the service mentality in the sense that you subjugate your own ego, and you subjugate a large part of your own life to really helping other people, being successful on their behalf.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    You have to treat your employees like your customers. When you treat them right they will treat your outside customers right.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    You must be very patient, very persistent. The world isn't going to shower gold coins on you just because you have a good idea. You're going to have to work like crazy to bring that idea to the attention of people. They're not going to buy it unless they know about it.

  • By Anonym
    Herb Kelleher

    The business of business is people.