None of us washes our rental cars (antedating 1985)

[Garson O'Toole]

Below is a citation that I forgot to include. An article dated 1987 on
the Inc. magazine website tells the story of General Creech's
reorganization. This recounting of events also contains the same
quote: "when was the last time you washed a rental car?"

Citation: 1987 January 1, Inc. magazine, Four-Star Management by Jay
Finegan. (Online article. I have not checked this on paper.)

The crew chiefs took to their new responsibilities with a passion,
doing whatever was necessary to make their jets the best. They went
everywhere with them--on deployments, through inspections, to the wash
racks. And they kept a sharp eye on the technicians--in military
parlance, "kicking ass and taking names." Excellence became an
obsession. When Creech went to visit some crew chiefs to find out how
they liked the new arrangement, a sergeant summed it up nicely.
"General," he said, "when was the last time you washed a rental car?"

Start of article:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/19870101/creech.html
Webpage containing quote:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/19870101/creech_pagen_3.html

I also left out the fact that Ralph Keyes investigated the dictum in
"The Quote Verifier". Keyes says that self-help sage Steven Covey used
the saying in the mid-1990s according to an audience member. Keyes
also says that Thomas Friedman of the New York Times attributed the
saying to economist Lawrence Summers. But Keyes did not reach a
definitive conclusion, and he finished his discussion with: Verdict: A
new saw; author yet to be determined.

Here is an example of Thomas Friedman crediting Lawrence Summers:

Citation: 2002 October 27, New York Times, There Is Hope by Thomas Friedman.

I heard Harvard's president, Lawrence Summers, say once that "in the
history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car."

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/27/opinion/27FRIE.html

Friedman's columns were no doubt important in disseminating the saying.

Garson

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