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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

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Lee Iacocca
Age: 94 †
Born: 1924
Born: October 15
Died: 2019
Died: July 2
Autobiographer
Businessman
Businessperson
Diarist
Allentown
Pennsylvania
Lido Anthony Iacocca
Thinking
Case
Raiders
Pay
Blackmail
Cases
Premium
Wonder
Pins
Company
Wondering
Away
Pays
Raider
Really
Suit
Holdings
Think
Suits
Striped

More quotes by Lee Iacocca

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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
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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.
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I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership.
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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.
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When the product is right, you don't have to be a great marketer.
Lee Iacocca
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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.
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A major reason capable people fail to advance is that they don't work well with their colleagues.
Lee Iacocca
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If you own up to your mistakes, you don't suffer as much. But that's a tough lesson to learn.
Lee Iacocca
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Every little kid wants to grow up to be a cowboy, and I did.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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Every business and every product has risks. You can't get around it.
Lee Iacocca
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The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.
Lee Iacocca
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They're on you day and night. Their oversight is just too extreme [. . .] That's why our 10-year loan, we paid it back in three years. We couldn't stand the government. The bureaucracy kills you.
Lee Iacocca
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If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.
Lee Iacocca
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Thanks to properly selecting the clients you will not be unnecessarily wasting time.
Lee Iacocca
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MBAs know everything but understand nothing.
Lee Iacocca
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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