Iacocca Quotes & Sayings

In 1964, when Lee Iacocca said, 'Shelby, I want you to make a sports car out of the Mustang,' the first thing I said was, 'Lee, you can't make a race horse out of a mule. I don't want to do it.' He said, 'I didn't ask you to make it; you work for me.' — Carroll Shelby

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

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. — Lee Iacocca

If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. — Lee Iacocca

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

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

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. — Lee Iacocca

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

Business, after all, is nothing more than a bunch of human relationships. — Lee Iacocca

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

Trouble shared is trouble halved. — Lee Iacocca

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. — Lee Iacocca

Life can be difficult for kids born with a gold spoon in their mouth, because they never really get to find out if they're able to work hard and make it on their own. — Lee Iacocca

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

As far as I'm concerned, the first business leader who was able to establish a cult of personality around his tenure was Lee Iacocca. — Tom Peters

No matter how I'm doing financially, the Depression has never disappeared from my consciousness. To this day, I hate waste. When neckties went from narrow to wide, I kept all my old ones until the style went back to narrow. — Lee Iacocca

We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluable problems. — Lee Iacocca

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

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

The best advice I ever got was from Lee Iacocca ... It was get into a business where you can be a big fish, not the little fish. Get into a business where you can be a change agent, where you can make a difference. — Marcus Lemonis

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

Don't just stand there; make something happen. — Lee Iacocca

If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late. — Lee Iacocca

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

My father always used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life. — Lee Iacocca

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

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

They've got about as many lawyers as we have sumo-wrestlers. — Lee Iacocca

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

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

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

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

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

People want economy, and they'll pay any price to get it. — Lee Iacocca

Leadership means setting an example. When you find yourself in a position of leadership, people follow your every move. — Lee Iacocca

Thanks to properly selecting the clients you will not be unnecessarily wasting time. — Lee Iacocca

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

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. — Lee Iacocca

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. — Lee Iacocca

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

You can't have a country or a city or a state that's worth a damn unluss you govern within yourself in your day-to-day life. — Lee Iacocca

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

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. — Lee Iacocca

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. — Lee Iacocca

When future historians look back on our way of curing inflation ... they'll probably compare it to bloodletting in the Middle Ages. — Lee Iacocca

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

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

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

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. — Lee Iacocca

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. — Lee Iacocca

A good deal is a state of mind. — Lee Iacocca

It was emotional when Chrysler sold out to the Germans. — Lee Iacocca

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?
— Lee Iacocca

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

Get all the education you can then go out and do something - do anything. — Lee Iacocca

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

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

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

There are times when even the best manager is like the little boy with the big dog, waiting to see where the dog wants to go so he can take him there. — Lee Iacocca

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. — Lee Iacocca

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

There's a billboard in a little farm town in the Midwest that says: IF YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT FARMERS, DON'T TALK WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL. — Lee Iacocca

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

Through its prohibition on birth control, the Church has suggested that the only right way to have children is through biological reproduction: a kind of forced labor culminating in the production of another soul for God. What kind of a God stands like Lee Iacocca at the end of an assembly line, driving his workers with a greedy 'More! More!' while the automobiles pile up in showrooms and on freeways and in used-car lots and finally junkyards, his only satisfaction the gross production figures at the end of every quarter? — Nancy Mairs

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

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

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

Lee Iacocca, who said to Dolly Parton, Why do you need an airbag? Never got a dinner! — Red Buttons

What is wrong with changing your mind because the facts changed? But you have to be able to say why you changed your mind and how the facts changed. — Lee Iacocca

Sometimes you just don't like somebody — Henry Ford

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

Why is our free-enterprise system so strong?- Not because it stands still, frozen in the past, but because it has always adapted to changing realities — Lee Iacocca

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

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

Chrysler invented rebates, I'm sorry to say. I didn't have anything to do with that. A lot of flaky deals were made in order to give the customer enough cash for a down payment. — Lee Iacocca

You, my friend, alone are equal to a hundred of such friends. Happy Birthday to you. — Lee Iacocca

The cement in our whole democracy today is the worker who makes $ 15 an hour. He's the guy who will buy a house and a car and a refrigerator. He's the oil in the engine. — Lee Iacocca

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

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

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

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. — Lee Iacocca

Decisiveness is the one word that makes a good manager. — Lee Iacocca

Never rest on your oars as a boss. If you do, the whole company starts sinking. — Lee Iacocca

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

Real leaders like Lee Iacocca see vast possibilities and sell their dreams to their companies, their employees, their funding sources, their government and their buying public. — Mark Victor Hansen

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

There's no great mystery to satisfying your customers. Build them a quality product and treat them with respect. It's that simple. — Lee Iacocca

Bad times are indelible. They stay with you forever. — Lee Iacocca

I've got to get stop getting fired like this. People will start to think I'm a drifter. — Lee Iacocca

The primary skill of a manager consists of knowing how to make assignments and picking the right people to carry out those assignments — Lee Iacocca

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

I've never vied for power in the family before. Pointing a box at the garage door and saying "Open!" was never a big deal, but holding that television tuner and realizing I alone control what is flashed on the screen brings out the Iacocca in me. — Erma Bombeck

Iacocca made his pitch: He wanted Ford to build the Fiesta, but with a Honda engine and transmission in it. Honda was delighted: He would like nothing better than this joint production with an American company, whose very name he revered. The price of the Japanese parts would be only $711. He could deliver 300,000 and do it quickly. Iacocca was even more delighted; he had an instant car and an unbeatable one at that. It could be in the dealers' showrooms in only eighteen months. — David Halberstam

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. — Lee Iacocca

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. — Lee Iacocca

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. — Lee Iacocca

Styling cars sells cars and safety does not. — Lee Iacocca

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

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

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