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1 " Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then...do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen. "
― Lee Iacocca
2 " I’ve always felt that a manager has achieved a great deal when he’s able to motivate one other person. When it comes to making the place run, motivation is everything. You might be able to 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. "
3 " My father always used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life. "
4 " In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else. "
5 " We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluable problems. "
6 " 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? "
7 " 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 "
8 " In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive. "
9 " Get all the education you can then go out and do something - do anything. "
― Lee Iacocca , Iacocca: An Autobiography
10 " In a completely rational society, the best of us would 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. "
11 " 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? "
12 " The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen. "
13 " 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. "
14 " 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. But He’s a charitable Lord: He only lets you see one day at a time. When times get tough, there’s no choice except to take a deep breath, carry on, and do the best you can. "
15 " When the product is right, you don't have to be a great marketer. "
16 " I always kept in mind my father’s warning: “If he’s bigger than you are, don’t fight back. Use your head instead of your fists. "
17 " In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. People come first. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two. "
18 " Although I was never a candidate, I learned a lot from all the presidential talk. Shortly after the whole business began, I was having a conversation with a guy in advertising. He said something interesting: “I’ve decided why everybody talks about you as a presidential candidate. It’s very simple. They don’t believe anybody anymore. You talk to them and you make them believe that you stand for something and then you pursue it. You don’t bullshit them, and the American public has been bullshitted too often. "
19 " Why don’t we pass a law that says when you borrow money to buy somebody else and cannibalize him, the interest payments on those loans are not deductible? That would get the excesses out of the system pretty fast. Right now, if you want to buy up a competitor, generally you can’t. That would violate the antitrust laws. But if you want to buy a company that does something else entirely, that’s okay. Where’s the sense in that? "
20 " If I had to sum up in one word the qualities that make a good manager, I’d say that it all comes down to decisiveness. "
