On
Tough Decisions
“To solve big problems you have to be willing to do unpopular
things.”
On
Action
“Apply Yourself. Get all the education you can, but then,
by god, do something. Don’t just stand there, make it
happen.”
On
Business
“When the product is right, you don’t have to be
a great marketer.”
On
Friends
“My father always used to say that when you die, if you’ve
got fine real friends, you’ve had a great life.”
On
Family
| “The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.” |
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On
Love for the family
“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?”
“I
learned about the strength you can get from a close family.
I learned to keep going, even in bad times. I learned not
to despair, even when my world was falling apart. I learned
about the value of hard work. In the end you have got to be
productive. That’s what made this country great and that’s
what’s going to make us great again.”
At
a Press Conference
“We at Chrysler borrow money the old-fashioned way. We
pay it back.”
Nicola
Iacocca, on money
“Be careful about money. When you have five thousand,
you’ll want ten. And when you have ten, you’ll want
twenty.”
On
being fired by
Henry
Ford II
“Your timing stinks. We’ve just made a billion eight
for the second year in a row. That’s three and a half
billion in the past two years. But Mark my words Henry, you
may never see a billion eight again. And do you know why?
Because you don’t know how we made it in the first place!”
For
the Unions
“Hey boys, I’ve got a shotgun at your head. I’ve
got thousands of jobs available at seventeen bucks an hour.
I’ve got none at twenty. So you better come to your senses.”
“I
do it to keep busy. It’s supposed to keep you young.
It keeps your mind young, no doubt about that.” (When
questioned about his various activities after retirement.)
“Selling
is not easy, but selling patriotism is easy.”
(On his work as chairman emeritus of
the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation)
On
the Minivan
“I never got a letter from anyone asking, ‘Will
you make me a minivan?’ We just followed our market.
The Mustang crowd got 20 years older.”
On
the Chrysler PT Cruiser
“You don’t really drive it, you sort of wear it.”
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