Best 115 quotes of Lee Iacocca on MyQuotes

A country's competitiveness starts not on the factory floor or in the engineering lab. It starts in the classroom.

A good deal is a state of mind.

A guy named Charlie Beacham was my first mentor at Ford. He taught me the importance of the dealers, and he rubbed my nose in the retail business.

A little righteous anger really brings out the best in the American personality. Our nation was born when 56 patriots got mad enough to sign the Declaration of Independence. We put a man on the moon because Sputnik made us mad at being number two in space. Getting mad in a constructive way is good for the soul- and the country.

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

Any supervisor worth his salt would rather deal with people who attempt too much than with those who try too little.

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

Are we going to be a services power? The double-cheeseburger-hold-the-mayo kings of the world?

As you go through life, there are thousands of little forks in the road, and there are a few really big forks-those moments of reckoning, moments of truth.

Bad times are indelible. They stay with you forever.

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

Chrysler builds great cars.

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

Every little kid wants to grow up to be a cowboy, and I did.

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.

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.

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.

Here's what management is about: Pick good people and set the right priorities.

I always go back to Harry Truman: Should we drop an atomic bomb to save 100,000 lives? That's a hell of a decision to make. Did he make that decision by himself? No, he had advisers.

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

I'd really love to meet the guy I'm supposed to be. I'd hire him in a second.

If a guy is over 25 percent jerk, he's in trouble. And Henry was 95 percent.

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.

If I Had To Sum Up In One Word The Qualities That Make Up A Good Manager, I'd Say Decisiveness.

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

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 make believe that ten guys in pin-striped suits are back in a kindergarten class playing with building blocks, you'll get a rough picture of what life in a corporation is like.

If you own up to your mistakes, you don't suffer as much. But that's a tough lesson to learn.

If your product is great, you yourself do not have to be a great seller.

If you set a good example you need not worry about setting rules.

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 guess I invented extended warranties, because that's all we had to sell at Chrysler in those days.

I guess that's one achievement I'm really proud of. Saving Chrysler was more than jobs, more than shareholder value. Saving Chrysler was a good idea for the whole country.

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.

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.

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

I learned that monthly payments are the cornerstone of everything in the automobile business.

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.

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.

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.

In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else.

In a corporation, there can only be one guy in the end: the CEO.

In business, I loved cars. I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning. Only in America can you decide to get a good education and pursue what you like.

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.

Incompetency begets incompetency. The last thing a guy who isn't sure of himself wants is a guy backing him up who is sure of himself.

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

In the great undertakings, there is glory, even in failure.

In the old days, if a neighbors apples fell into your yard, you worked it out over the back fence or picked them up and made pies. Today, you sue.

In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.