Entrepreneurship 101

Have a seat, our Professor today is Lee Iacocca, and class is in session…

During the 1980s Lee Iacocca helped save a giant corporation in Chrysler from going under. Iacocca came into the Chrysler rebuilding the entire company from the ground up, laying off many workers, and bringing in many of his former associates from the Ford Motor Company.

Lee Iacocca is known as one of the best CEOs to ever grace a company. As entrepreneurs we can learn quite a few things from some quotes of the legend that is Lee Iacocca:

Priorities

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.
Lee Iacocca

What are your priorities in life? Look at your typical day and figure out where you are not putting in 100% to your life’s priorities and fix it. Quit multi-tasking on 100s of different things, focus on what matters and go all in.

Foundations of Business: People, Product, Profits

In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits.
Lee Iacocca

If you do not have a product or service then what are you selling? If you do not have people to buy your product or service then how are you making money? If you are not making money how are you feeding your family?

Take Action

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.
Lee Iacocca

So many of us do not take action to achieve what we want in life. We can read book after book and keep telling ourselves “someday,” but that day never comes. Keep shipping, fail, learn, repeat.

Passion

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

Keeping busy with your something positive such as your passions, doing so, will slice through the stress and adversity. I strongly believe this as my stress levels are almost non-existent now that I am following my life’s passions. No challenge or stress is larger than my passions.

Relationships

I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.
Lee Iacocca

Let people do their magic. Quit taking away their energy through pointless and non-meaningful work. Hire people brighter than you.

Communication

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.
Lee Iacocca

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.
Lee Iacocca

You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.
Lee Iacocca

Communication is pretty much the basis of any success. Without communication, you do not exist. Effectively learn how to communicate and see the achievements start rolling in.

Perception – Self-Efficacy

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

Do you think you have what it takes to be successful? An entrepreneur? To be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company? If you have a shadow of a doubt, then you lose.

Growth – Innovation

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.
Lee Iacocca

Know when it is time to embrace change and growth. Continually innovate your life and your industry. Think like Seth Godin. No, be better than Seth Godin.

Integrity – Values

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

Know your values, both in life and in business. Live true to your values and your self-confidence will be unmatched by the greatest in the world. You’ll be better than Muhammad Ali.

Without integrity to your values, you’re living a life with nothing to stand on and your business will have no support. Both your life and your business will crumble. Integrity to your values.

Marketing 101

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.
Lee Iacocca

Know who you’re communicating with. Know what their problems are and how you can solve them. The problem is the villain and you and the solutions are the hero. Actually, being a Hero is not enough anymore. Act like a Superhero.

Listening

“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.”
Lee Iacocca

Listen before you talk. Listen more than you talk. Read Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends & Influence People.” Be curious in life, ask questions and listen. If you listen hard enough you will find the solutions to your customers/clients/friends/families problems.

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