FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto remembers auto industry titan Lee Iacocca
You know, my long gone Italian dad used to say you can tell the measure of a man by how he treats people who can't do a thing for him.
That was legendary automotive executive Lee Iacocca.
He was a man who taught all well, treated all with just respect and galvanized and jazzed them to think bigger of themselves and the mission he put before them. He was a friend of the factory floor worker who had all but given up and the bankers who had all but cashed out. He told them all I can make something here and make you believe we can make a company given up for dead, come back to life.
Lee A. Iacocca, right , corporate vice president and general manager of Ford Motor Co., and Donald N. Frey, vice president of Ford Motor Co., stand in front of a 1960 Falcon, left and a 1965 Mustang in March 1965. The Mustang was the brainchild of th (AP)
The son of Italian immigrants who didn't have a penny to their name changed history as we know it, corporate history. So impressive was what Lee Iacocca did in his 94 years on this planet that many said Lee you should run for president.
It was among the many issues I raised with him over the decades I had the honor of talking with him. Remembering a legend who simply refused to believe he was.
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A remarkable story, a remarkable attitude and a remarkable man who came from nothing and did a lot with something that changed the way we look at companies and even changed the way we look at CEOs usually hidden away in boardrooms, hidden away in offices. He was the front person for a company that came back when everyone said it wouldn't and who returned every penny with interest in the loan that he received seven years early. He said of jerks that he encountered in life that you can't control that but you really should. He referred to the fact anyone who is 25 percent jerk is in trouble. Some people abuse the privilege.