LEE IACOCCA

The one word that makes a good manager - decisiveness.

We at Chrysler borrow money the old-fashioned way. We pay it back.

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

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

We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.

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.

I guess that's one achievement I'm really proud of. Saving Chrysler was more than jobs, more than shareholder value. Saving Chrysler was a good idea for the whole country.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

It was emotional when Chrysler sold out to the Germans.

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

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

In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else.

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.

In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.

A guy named Charlie Beacham was my first mentor at Ford. He taught me the importance of the dealers, and he rubbed my nose in the retail business.

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

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

I have found that being honest is the best technique I can use. Right up front, tell people what you're trying to accomplish and what you're willing to sacrifice to accomplish it.

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

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.

I've always found that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team.

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.

There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.

The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being.

The kind of people I look for to fill top management spots are the eager beavers, the mavericks. These are the guys who try to do more than they're expected to do - they always reach.