Herb Kelleher Quotes

“Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that.”

“A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear.”

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

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

“The business of business is people.”

“I tell my employees that we're in the service business, and it's incidental that we fly airplanes.”

“If you don't treat your own people well, they won't treat other people well.”

“Leading an organization is as much about soul as it is about systems. Effective leadership finds its source in understanding.”

“I learned it by doing it, and I was scared to death.”

“If you create an environment where the people truly participate, you don't need control. They know what needs to be done and they do it.”

“I think my greatest moment in business was when the first Southwest airplane arrived after four years of litigation, and I walked up to it and I kissed that baby on the lips and I cried.”