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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.

Herb Kelleher

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Herb Kelleher
Age: 87 †
Born: 1931
Born: March 12
Died: 2019
Died: January 3
Businessperson
Chairperson
Chief Executive Officer
Lawyer
Organizational Founder
Camden
New Jersey
Herbert David Kelleher
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Endure
Enduring
Wells
Green
Mysteries
Firsts
Mystery
Employees
Come
Works
Customer
Well
Please
Employee
First
Coming
Motivated
Shareholders
Way
Happy
Customers
Pleases
Time
Keep
Treats
Airline

More quotes by Herb Kelleher

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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.
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Hire for attitude, train for skill.
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You don't hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.
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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.
Herb Kelleher
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The important thing is to take the bricklayer and make him understand that he’s building a home, not just laying bricks.
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Power should be reserved for weightlifting and boats, and leadership really involves responsibility.
Herb Kelleher
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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.
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Think small and act small, and we'll get bigger. Think big and act big, and we'll get smaller.
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To be an excellent leader, you have to be a superb follower.
Herb Kelleher
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Wild Turkey whiskey and Philip Morris cigarettes are essential to the maintenance of human life!
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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.
Herb Kelleher
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If the Wright brother were alive today Wilbur would have to fire Orville to reduce costs.
Herb Kelleher
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The tragedy of our time is that we've got it backwards, we've learned to love techniques and use people.
Herb Kelleher
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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.
Herb Kelleher
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The business of business is people.
Herb Kelleher
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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.
Herb Kelleher
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The clear, unmistakable sign of a bureaucrat is somebody who worries about whether he has a window.
Herb Kelleher
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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.
Herb Kelleher
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I learned it by doing it, and I was scared to death.
Herb Kelleher
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If you don't treat your own people well, they won't treat other people well.
Herb Kelleher