In organizing my thoughts, I recalled what I remembered as being a thoughtful aphorism by Lee Iacocca, the legendary CEO of Chrysler corporation. Perhaps I had read years ago that he had this quotation framed in his office, "Problems are only opportunities in work clothes."
However, after doing a little on-line research, I learned that the quotation actually comes from Henry J. Kaiser an even more legendary CEO. If you don't recall Kaiser, he headed up a massive ship-building operation in Oakland during World War II, founded Kaiser Steel and Kaiser Aluminum, headed up the team of companies which built Hoover Dam, Grand Coulee Dam, Bonneville Dam, the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, and the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach, among other things. Oh, and to help his many employees with their medical care, he started a little operation called Kaiser Permanente.
Kaiser did merge his automobile company with Willys Company, the maker of Jeeps, and that company was then bought out by Chrysler, so perhaps Lee Iacocca did have the quotation from Kaiser in a frame in his office.
By the way, Iacocca came up with a good quotation on problems and opportunities himself. "We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems." This one is not nearly as colorful as Kaiser's quotation, but perhaps it appeals more the clever, high-brow, executive-suite types who live in Arcadia. Perhaps not.
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Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
-Thomas A. Edison
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