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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.

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
Sometimes
Described
Never
Seats
Pants
Hips
Operator
Leader
Shooter
Successful
Flamboyant
Business
Operators
True
Seat

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I only wish I could find an institute that teaches people how to listen. Business people need to listen at least as much as they need to talk. Too many people fail to realize that real communication goes in both directions.
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In a corporation, there can only be one guy in the end: the CEO.
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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.
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To solve big problems you have to be willing to do unpopular things.
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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.
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The ability to concentrate and to use your time well is everything if you want to succeed in business--or almost anywhere else for that matter.
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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.
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Never rest on your oars as a boss. If you do, the whole company starts sinking.
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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.
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When the product is right, you don't have to be a great marketer.
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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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A country's competitiveness starts not on the factory floor or in the engineering lab. It starts in the classroom.
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Every business and every product has risks. You can't get around it.
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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.
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The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.
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The trick is to make sure you don't die waiting for prosperity to come.
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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?
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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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There's a world of difference between a strong ego, which is essential, and a large ego-which can be destructive.
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There's no great mystery to satisfying your customers. Build them a quality product and treat them with respect. It's that simple.
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