Herb Kelleher Quotes Page 2

“My suggestion is that if you need someone outside your company to prepare a mission statement for you, then you really don't know what your mission is, and you probably don't have one.”

“Nothing kills your company's culture like layoffs.”

“One piece of advice that always stuck in my mind is that people should be respected and trusted as people, not because of their position or title.”

“Our people know that if they are sick, we will take care of them. If there are occasions of grief or joy, we will be there with them. They know that we value them as people, not just cogs in a machine.”

“Positions and titles mean absolutely nothing. They're just adornments; they don't represent the substance of anybody. Every person and every job is worth as much as any other person and any other job.”

“Power should be reserved for weightlifting and boats, and leadership really involves responsibility.”

“Sometimes you need a little courage too just to buck popular opinion.”

“The business of business is people.”

“The clear, unmistakable sign of a bureaucrat is somebody who worries about whether he has a window.”

“The essential difference in service is not machines or 'things'. The essential difference is minds, hearts, spirits, and souls.”

“The important thing is to take the bricklayer and make him understand that he’s building a home, not just laying bricks.”

“The more time I spend with our people, the more I find out about our business.”

“The tragedy of our time is that we've got it backwards, we've learned to love techniques and use people.”

“Think small and act small, and we'll get bigger. Think big and act big, and we'll get smaller.”

“To be an excellent leader, you have to be a superb follower.”

“Treat your employees like customers.”

“We have a strategic plan. It's called 'doing things'.”

“We will hire someone with less experience, less education, and less expertise than someone who has more of those things and has a rotten attitude. Because we can train people. We can teach people how to lead. We can teach people how to provide customer service. But we can't change their DNA.”

“We've always operated on the thesis that a company can have a personality, that people can be themselves, and be very successful in business at the same time.”

“What's important is that a customer should get off the airplane feeling: I didn't just get from A to B. I had one of the most pleasant experiences I ever had, and I'll be back for that reason.”

“When I started working on Southwest Airlines, I kid you not, only people flying on business and very wealthy people ever flew.”

“Who says a lighthearted approach to business is incompatible with success?”

“Wild Turkey whiskey and Philip Morris cigarettes are essential to the maintenance of human life!”

“You can have parties without spending enormous sums of money.”

“You can't have a mid-life crisis in the airline industry because every day is a crisis.”

“You don't hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.”

“You have to have the service mentality in the sense that you subjugate your own ego, and you subjugate a large part of your own life to really helping other people, being successful on their behalf.”

“You have to treat your employees like your customers. When you treat them right they will treat your outside customers right.”

“You must be very patient, very persistent. The world isn't going to shower gold coins on you just because you have a good idea. You're going to have to work like crazy to bring that idea to the attention of people. They're not going to buy it unless they know about it.”

“You want to show your people that you value them, and you're not going to hurt them just to get a little more money in the short term. Not furloughing people breeds loyalty. It breeds a sense of security. It breeds a sense of trust.”