So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don't sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.
There comes a time when you've got to say, "Let's get off our asses and go ..." I have always found that if I move with 75 percent or more of the facts I usually never regret it. It's the guys who wait to have everything perfect that drive you crazy.
Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then...do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.
There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.
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.
The affections are like lightning: you cannot tell where they will strike till they have fallen.
The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.
One of the things the government can't do is run anything. The only things our government runs are the post office and the railroads, and both of them are bankrupt.
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.
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.
We at Chrysler borrow money the old-fashioned way. We pay it back.
I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.
We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.
Chrysler builds great cars.
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.
I was at Ford for 32 years. I went to Chrysler in 1978, four or five months after I got canned by Henry Ford.
Chrysler invented rebates, I'm sorry to say. I didn't have anything to do with that. A lot of flaky deals were made in order to give the customer enough cash for a down payment.
In a corporation, there can only be one guy in the end: the CEO.
Every business and every product has risks. You can't get around it.
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.
