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Iacocca: An Autobiography Hardcover – November 1, 1984

by Lee Iacocca (Author), William Novak (Collaborator)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,571 ratings
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He’s an American legend, a straight-shooting businessman who brought Chrysler back from the brink and in the process became a media celebrity, newsmaker, and a man many had urged to run for president.

The son of Italian immigrants, Lee Iacocca rose spectacularly through the ranks of Ford Motor Company to become its president, only to be toppled eight years later in a power play that should have shattered him. But Lee Iacocca didn’t get mad, he got even. He led a battle for Chrysler’s survival that made his name a symbol of integrity, know-how, and guts for millions of Americans.

In his classic hard-hitting style, he tells us how he changed the automobile industry in the 1960s by creating the phenomenal Mustang. He goes behind the scenes for a look at Henry Ford’s reign of intimidation and manipulation. He recounts the miraculous rebirth of Chrysler from near bankruptcy to repayment of its $1.2 billion government loan so early that Washington didn’t know how to cash the check.


From the Trade Paperback edition.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bantam Books
  4. Publication date
    November 1, 1984
  5. ISBN-10
    0553051024
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0553051025
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lee Iacocca is the former chairman of Chrysler Corporation and the author of Talking Straight and the autobiography Iacocca.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.


Chapter One


THE FAMILY

Nicola Iacocca, my father, arrived in this country in 1902 at the age of twelve--poor, alone, and scared. He used to say the only thing he was sure of when he got here was that the world was round. And that was only because another Italian boy named Christopher Columbus had preceded him by 410 years, almost to the day.

As the boat sailed into New York Harbor, my father looked out and saw the Statue of Liberty, that great symbol of hope for millions of immigrants. On his second crossing, when he saw the statue again, he was a new American citizen--with only his mother, his young wife, and hope by his side. For Nicola and Antoinette, America was the land of freedom--the freedom to become anything you wanted to be, if you wanted it bad enough and were willing to work for it.

This was the single lesson my father gave to his family. I hope I have done as well with my own.When I was growing up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, our family was so close it sometimes felt as if we were one person with four parts.

My parents always made my sister, Delma, and me feel important and special. Nothing was too much work or too much trouble. My father might have been busy with a dozen other things, but he always had time for us. My mother went out of her way to cook the foods we loved--just to make us happy. To this day, whenever I come to visit, she still makes my two favorites--chicken soup with little veal meatballs, and ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese. Of all the world's great Neopolitan cooks, she has to be one of the best.

My father and I were very close. I loved pleasing him, and he was always terrifically proud of my accomplishments. If I won a spelling contest at school, he was on top of the world. Later in life whenever I got a promotion, I'd call my father right away and he'd rush out to tell all his friends. At Ford, each time I brought out a new car, he wanted to be the first to drive it. In 1970, when I was named president of the Ford Motor Company, I don't know which of us was more excited.

Like many native Italians, my parents were very open with their feelings and their love--not only at home, but also in public. Most of my friends would never hug their fathers. I guess they were afraid of not appearing strong and independent. But I hugged and kissed my dad at every opportunity--nothing could have felt more natural.

He was a restles and inventive man who was always trying new things. At one point, he bought a couple of fig trees and actually found a way to grow them in the harsh climate of Allentown. He was also the first person in town to buy a motorcycle--an old Harley Davidson, which he rode through the dirt streets of our small city. Unfortunately, my father and his motorcycle didn't get along too well. He fell off it so often that he finally got rid of it. As a result, he never again trusted any vehicle with less than four wheels.

Because of that damn motorcycle, I wasn't allowed to have a bicycle when I was growing up. Whenever I wanted to ride a bike, I had to borrow one from a friend. On the other hand, my father let me drive a car as soon as I turned sixteen. This made me the only kid in Allentown who went straight from a tricycle to a Ford.

My father loved cars. In fact, he owned one of the first Model T's. He was one of the few people in Allentown who knew how to drive, and he was always tinkering with cars and thinking about how to improve them. Like every driver in those days, he used to get a lot of flat tires. For years he was obsessed with finding a way to drive a few extra miles with a flat. To this day, whenever there's a new development in tire technology, I always think of my father.

He was in love with America, and he pursued the American dream with all his might. When World War I broke out, he volunteered for the Army--partly out of patriotism, and partly, he admitted to me later, to have a little more control over his destiny. He had worked hard to get to America and to become naturalized, and he was terrified at the prospect of being sent back to Europe to fight in Italy or France. Luckily for him, he was stationed at Camp Crane, an army training center just a couple of miles from his home. Because he could drive, he was assigned to train ambulance drivers.Nicola Iacocca had come to America from San Marco, about twenty-five miles northeast of Naples in the Italian province of Campania. Like so many immigrants, he was full of ambition and hope. In America he lived briefly in Garrett, Pennsylvania, with his stepbrother. There my father went to work in a coal mine, but he hated it so much that he quit after one day. He liked to say it was the only day in his life that he ever worked for anybody else.

He soon moved east to Allentown, where he had another brother. By 1921, he had saved up enough money doing odd jobs, mostly as an apprentice shoemaker, that he could return to San Marco to bring over his widowed mother. As it turned out, he ended up bringing over my mother, too. During his stay in Italy this thirty-one-year-old bachelor fell in love with the seventeen-year-old daughter of a shoemaker. Within a few weeks they were married.

Over the years a number of journalists have reported (or repeated) that my parents went to Lido Beach in Venice for their honeymoon and that I was named Lido to commemorate that happy week. It's a wonderful story, except for one problem: it's not true. My father did take a trip to Lido Beach, but it was before the wedding, not after. And since he was with my mother's brother at the time, I doubt that his vacation was very romantic.

My parents' voyage to American wasn't easy. My mother came down with typhoid fever and spent the entire trip in the ship's infirmary. By the time they reached Ellis Island, she had lost all her hair. According to the laws, she should have been sent back to Italy. But my father was an aggressive, fast-talking operator who had already learned how to manage in the New World. Somehow he was able to convince the immigration officials that his new bride was merely seasick.

I was born three years later, on October 15, 1924. By this time, my father had opened a hot-dog restaurant called the Orpheum Wiener House. It was the perfect business for somebody without much cash. All he really needed to get started were a grill, a bun warmer, and a few stools.

My father always drilled two things into me: never get into a capital-intensive business, because the bankers will end up owning you. (I should have paid more attention to this particular piece of advice!) And when times are tough, be in the food business, because no matter how bad things get, people still have to eat. The Orpheum Wiener House stayed afloat all through the Great Depression.

Later, he brought my uncles Theodore and Marco into the business. To this day, Theodore's sons, Julius and Albert Iacocca, are still making hot dogs in Allentown. The company is called Yocco's, which is more or less how the Pennsylvania Dutch used to pronounce our name.

I came pretty close to going into the food business myself. At one point in 1952, I seriously considered leaving Ford to go into food franchising. Ford dealerships operated as independent franchises, and it occurred to me that anyone who could franchise a food operation would get rich in a hurry. My plan was to have ten fast-food outlets with one central buying location. This was long before McDonald's was even a gleam in Ray Kroc's eye, and I sometimes wonder if I missed my true calling in life. Who knows? Maybe today I'd be worth half a billion dollars, with a sign out front proclaiming: Over 10 billion served.

A few years later, I did open my own place, a little sandwich shop in Allentown called The Four Chefs. It served Philadelphia cheese steaks. (That's thinly-sliced steak with melted cheese on an Italian roll.) My father set it up, and I put in the money. It did very well--too well, in fact, because what I really needed was a tax shelter. We made $125,000 the first year, which raised my tax bracket to the point where I had to get rid of it. The Four Chefs was my first exposure to bracket creep and the progressive nature of our tax laws.

Actually I was in the food business long before I got involved with cars. When I was ten, one of the country's first supermarkets opened in Allentown. After school and on weekends, my little pals and I would line up at the door with our red wagons, like a row of taxicabs outside a hotel. As the shoppers came out, we would offer to take home their bags for a small tip. In retrospect, it makes a lot of sense--I was in the transportation end of the food business.

As a teenager, I had a weekend job in a fruit market run by a Greek named Jimmy Kritis. I used to get up before dawn to get to the wholesale market and bring back the produce. He paid me $2.00 a day--plus all the fruit and vegetables I could lug home after a sixteen-hour workday.

By this time, my father had other enterprises besides the Orpheum Wiener House. Early on, he bought into a national company called U-Drive-It, one of the very first car rental agencies. Eventually he built up a fleet of about thirty cars, mostly Fords. My father was also good friends with one Charley Charles, whose son, Edward Charles, worked for a Ford dealership. Later Eddie bought a dealership of his own, where he introduced me to the fascinating world of the retail car business. By the time I was fifteen, Eddie had convinced me to go into the automobile business. From that day forward, all my energies were directed to doing just that.

My father is probably responsible for my instinct for marketing. He owned a couple of movie houses; one of his theaters, the Franklin, is still in use today. Old-timers in Allentown have told me my father was such a great promoter that the kids who came down to the Saturday matinees used to get more excited about his special offers than about the movies. People still talk about the day he announced that the ten kids with the dirtiest faces would be admitted free.

I doubt...

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bantam Books; Reissue edition (November 1, 1984)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0553051024
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0553051025
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,571 ratings

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  1. William Novak

    William Novak

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  2. Lee Iacocca

    Lee Iacocca

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    Lee Iacocca is the former president of Ford Motor Company and Chrysler Corporation and a bestselling author. He spends his time traveling, giving speeches, and supporting the Iacocca Foundation, which funds research for a cure for diabetes.

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
1,571 global ratings
The proper way for government to "Bailout" (assist) corporate America
5 Stars
The proper way for government to "Bailout" (assist) corporate America
I purchased and have listened to Lee Iacocca's story contained in this cassette series many times since it was published. Iacocca moved over to Chrysler after being fired at Ford. This story, as told by Mr. Iacocca, illustrates that when an EFFECTIVE leader is in a position such as CEO of a major corporation, great things can be accomplished. He describes developing an extremely detailed plan of action to bring Chrysler from the brink of shutting down to regaining Chrysler's place in the world of automotive excellence.You will hear how there were months, (yes, a single month) in which Mr. Iacocca would sell a subsidiary or even a major building owned by Chrysler, just to make payroll for employees - for THAT month.If you have plans to develop your career into executive levels in corporate America, this tape set will provide insight into changing paradigms that ensure success, even when facing catastrophy.
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Top reviews from the United States

Christian D. Orr
5.0 out of 5 stars An American automotive icon
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2019
Verified Purchase
As both a former owner of a classic Mustang (1967) and the current owner of a Chrysler 300 (2007), I have plenty of reason to respect and appreciate Mr. Iacocca, and it was with considerable sadness that I heard of his passing earlier this year. And after reading this bestselling autobiography of his, I respect and admire Lee just that much more. Being a 25 year-old book, a good bit of the material is now outdated (especially the alarmism about then-seemingly omnipotent Japan), and I don’t agree with all the political views espoused within (especially the praise of FDR, blecchh), but nonetheless, I found the book to be thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking.

R.I.P. and God bless, Lee Iacocca, gone but definitely not forgotten.

RANDOM STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS:

—“The chapter ‘Making America Great Again’ drew more comments than any other because it touched a raw nerve.” Oh, the irony...

“Wherever I go, people always ask me the same questions. How did you get to be successful? Why did Henry Ford fire you? How did you turn Chrysler around? I’ve never had a good quick answer to these questions, so I’ve slipped into the habit of saying: “l’When I write my book, you’ll find out.’ Over the years, I’ve repeated that phrase so often that I’ve come to believe my own words. In the end, I had no choice but to write the book I’ve been talking about for so long.” Haha, reminds me of the folks who encouraged both me and my Dad to write our memoirs.

“Henry Ford made my kids suffer, and for that I’ll never forgive him.” Ouch!

“Being fired at Ford was bad enough. But going down with the ship at Chrysler was more than I deserved. Fortunately, Chrysler recovered from its brush with death. Today I’m a hero. But strangely enough, it’s all because of that moment of truth at the warehouse. With determination, with luck, and with help from lots of good people, I was able to rise up from the ashes. Now let me tell you my story.”

“It took me a number of years to fully understand why I had to make a good confession to a priest before I went to Holy Communion, but in my teens I began to appreciate the importance of this most misunderstood rite of the Catholic Church.” [emphasis added] Dominus Vobiscum, Lee!

“Even at age nine I was allowed to swig a little—as long as I did it at home under strict supervision. Maybe that’s why I never got pig-drunk in high school and college. In our house alcohol (usually homemade red wine) was accepted as part of life—but always in moderation.” Good on Lee’s parents, they raised him right!

But to think that someday you’ll be a trendsetter is no comfort for a nine-year-old kid.” Ain’t that the frickin’ truth!

“I’m constantly amazed by the number of people who can’t seem to control their own schedules. Over the years, I’ve had many executives come to me and say with pride: ‘Boy, last year I worked so hard that I didn’t take any vacation.’ It’s actually nothing to be proud of. I always feel like responding: ‘You dummy. You mean to tell me that you can take responsibility for an $ 80 million project and you can’t plan two weeks out of the year to go off with your family and have some fun?’” Amen! You gotta know how to manage your time to find that proper work-life balance!

—p. 44: “Robert McNamara was noticeably different from the other Whiz Kids and also from his fellow executives at Ford. Many people thought he lacked warmth, and I guess he did project a degree of coolness.” That explains a lot about that Vietnam War-mismanaging A-hole, I reckon.

—p. 45: “It was a valuable lesson, and I’ve followed his lead ever since. Whenever one of my people has an idea, I ask him to lay it out in writing. I don’t want anybody to sell me on a plan just by the melodiousness of his voice or force of personality. You really can’t afford that.”

—p. 46: “McNamara was the quintessential bean counter, and he epitomized both the strengths and weaknesses of the breed.”

—p. 50: “a few basic questions: ‘What are your objectives for the next ninety days? What are your plans, your priorities, your hopes? And how do you intend to go about achieving them?’”

—p. 52: “Every company has lost good people who have simply been in the wrong job and who might have found more satisfaction as well as greater success if they could have been moved to another area instead of being fired.”
8 people found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring Read
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2024
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What a journey! Loved the book, I read it twice at a go. A new breath of motivation as I embark on a career switch
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mhnstr
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Phone, Light Buttons
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2004
Verified Purchase
This phone was purchased with the T-Mobile plan to replace a Nokia phone with AT&T. I changed phones and service because my old phone could not get reception inside of buildings. I chose the V300 due to the external antennae. I have had the phone for two weeks now and I have been very pleased. The reception is a bit tinny sometimes, but overall I have not had any problems with dropped calls.
I text message quite frequently and the phone offers you two choices for writing your text. The first is an intuitive text entry method where the phone guesses the words that you are trying to type and displays them on the screen for you to choose. This method is supposed to save time, but I have not yet gotten the hang of it. The second method is the tried and true press each button for each letter method. My only problem with the phone is that the buttons are not the same shape and are spaced apart which makes text messaging a bit trickier at first. Plus the numbers and letters which are written on the buttons are very light and I often have to shift the angle of the phone in order just to read the buttons. The light text might also be an issue for someone with vision problems.
Overall, I would recommend this phone. The only reason why I gave it four stars instead of five is because I think that Motorola needs to darken the text on the buttons for those users who like to text message or who have vision problems.
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Darren Teale
5.0 out of 5 stars A lesson in networking and team building. Great read
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2015
Verified Purchase
Growing up in the seventies even in Australia you heard things about Lee Iacocca in the newspapers and on the news and not all good particularly around the time Chrysler pulled the pin on Australia after making a deal with Mitsubishi.
Being a student of history I knew that there was more to the Man than what we read in the papers. I was already aware of what he had do for Ford and also he had brought back Chrysler for the bring of destruction.
The one thing I didn't expect from Iacocca's story was an excellent lesson in networking in business. Although in his book he never sells himself as a master net-worker.
Yet in is credit he constantly mentions people by name from mentors and people under him praising the team around him for the success of the company.
This book is an excellent demonstration of How a business is built on people a lesson that is so often forget in today's fast paced world. As the world gets smaller with technology it is more important than ever that your business connections, the people you keep closest at work have more to do with your success than anything else you do. If you are looking at success than this is a must read Lee Iacocca has shared his mistakes and success that is not dry like some autobiography's I found the book both entertaining and informative.
Darren Teale
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Top reviews from other countries

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Richard Bishop
5.0 out of 5 stars Would recommend the book.Good book on an interesting man. I
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2023
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Interesting book
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Amazon Kunde
5.0 out of 5 stars Still very relevant today
Reviewed in Germany on February 19, 2022
Verified Purchase
This is a gripping account of what it is like to head a top company. Iacocca pulls no punches and provides some fascinating Insights.
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michel mandero
5.0 out of 5 stars Rapide et efficace
Reviewed in France on July 5, 2021
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Instructif
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Lucio Benjamim Carraro
5.0 out of 5 stars Liderança é sempre atual
Reviewed in Brazil on August 14, 2019
Verified Purchase
Mesmo após 35 anos de publicação, a releitura deste livro resgata os princípios básicos para uma liderança eficiente: caráter, perseverança e muito trabalho duro. Sem falar em toda a história inspiradora. Iacocca nos deixou há poucos dias. Por isso, como homenagem, resolvi buscá-lo novamente. Conclusão: continua obrigatório para quem quer saber um pouco sobre negócios e liderança.
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marta
5.0 out of 5 stars Estupendo
Reviewed in Spain on August 3, 2020
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Muy interesante
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