Looking for inspiration in tough times? Try the advice of tough guys. I mean real tough guys—not the relatively wimpish characters whose ideas have shown up in business books in recent years. Forget about Attila the Hun. What did he know about wiretaps? Forget about Gen. Patton, too. Sure, he was rugged, but he had a license to kill.

Don Corleone, now there’s a tough guy. And he understood business.

So, I thought it would be interesting to see what organized crime—real and imagined—has to say about management and leadership. What follows is some blunt wisdom from the most recognized mobsters of the modern age. Think of these quotes as sound bites you can’t refuse.

(All those cited are mobsters, unless otherwise noted. Most quotes come from wiretaps. The rest come from court testimony or, in the case of the fictional mobsters, from the television or movie script.)

"How did we miss out on this? Espresso, cappuccino—we [bleeping] invented this!" —Paulie Walnuts, The Sopranos

In other words, invest in research and development, and be sure you harvest all your good ideas. As the HBO television series mobster suggests, the ones you dismiss as inconsequential may well come back to haunt you.

"I called your [bleeping] house five times yesterday. Now, if you’re going to disregard my [bleeping] phone calls, I’ll blow you and that [bleeping] house up....This is not a [bleeping] game. My time is valuable. If I ever hear anybody else calls you and you respond within five days, I’ll [bleeping] kill you." —John Gotti

Pretty simple: If someone holding the power of life or death over you is on line one, answer the [bleeping] phone.

"You don’t know who you’re [bleeping] with. We’ll cut your heart out." —An unidentified associate of Michael Franzese

Always know whom you’re [bleeping] with.

"Let me get a toothpick. I’ll be right there." —Paul Vitti, Analyze This

The main character was walking out with a fellow mob boss when he decided to go back indoors. As Vitti moved out of harm’s way, enemies aerated his porch with bullets, killing the other mobster.

The message: A sixth sense is essential.

"In New York, they’ll come in and take everything you have, then ask for more. In New Jersey, if you have one steak, they’ll leave you alone. As soon as you get a second steak, they’ll eat half. That way, they give you enough to live. Then they can come back for more." —Dennis Marchalonis

Marchalonis, an FBI agent who once ran an organized crime task force in New Jersey, says his Jersey gangsters understood, better than their big-city cousins, that a smart company makes sure it gets repeat business.

"Never open your mouth, unless you’re in the dentist’s chair." —Sammy "The Bull" Gravano

Not that he took his own advice—he broke the mob’s code of silence when he decided that Gotti had double-crossed him. Still, Gravano has a point: Save the gory details of your business conquests for the privacy of the next board meeting and leave the tell-alls to Hollywood.

"Every day you’re still above ground is a good day." —Gravano

This line has particular relevance for the former hitman now that he has turned government witness. But it may help keep things in perspective for all of us.

"If you’re clipping people, I always say, make sure you clip the people around him first. Get them together, ’cause everybody’s got a friend. He could be the dirtiest [bleep] in the world, but someone likes this guy, that’s the guy that sneaks you." —Ilario Zannino

Zannino was saying, in his inimitable fashion, that it’s dangerous to kill just one member of the rival gang. His advice seems to be that a, well, killer app needs to try to knock off an entire class of competitors. Home Depot did this as it grew from four small stores in Atlanta to more than 1,000 locations in multiple countries. First, it knocked off a whole category of neighborhood hardware stores, then regional companies, then national chains.

"Wear a cheap suit, for God’s sake!" —George Wolf

Wolf, an attorney for mob boss Frank Costello, was advising his client on how to come across in court. In essence, Wolf was saying: Know your audience. (Costello ignored the advice. Perhaps he was so sure he’d be found guilty that he knew his trips to court would mark his last time in fine threads.)

"Let’s take a son-in-law, somebody, put them into the office; they got a job. Let’s take somebody’s daughter, whatever, she’s the secretary. Let’s staff it with our people....And when we say go break this guy’s [bleep]...they’re there, seven o’clock in the morning to break the guy’s [bleep]." —"Tony Ducks" Corallo

Although Corallo was talking specifically about organizing and using a union, his broader point was: Make people loyal to you so that, when the time comes to strike a competitor, you can move like lightning.

"Don’t worry, don’t worry. Look at history. Look at the Astors and the Vanderbilts, all those big society people. They were the worst thieves—and now look at them. It’s just a matter of time." —Meyer Lansky

Lansky, known as "the history book reader," was basically telling a colleague that none of us need worry too much about our reputations in the short term. Today’s cockroaches are tomorrow’s nuclear holocaust survivors, right?

"Ever since we was kids, we always knew that people could be bought. It was only a question of who did the buyin’ and for how much."  —Charles "Lucky" Luciano

If you assume that everyone you meet has a price, then negotiating becomes a simple matter of finding it.

"When I get in a tight spot, I shoot my way out of it. Y’know, this game ain’t for guys that’s soft." —Cesare Enrico "Rico" Bandello in Little Caesar

Don’t be afraid of approaching a situation with both barrels blazing—but only if your gun is bigger than theirs (it’s a guy thing) and you have all their exits covered.

In The Sopranos, Junior Soprano says this well, too: "Come heavy, or not at all."

Andelman is the author or co-author of seven books, including The Profit Zone with Adrian Slywotzky and David Morrison. Built from Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew the Home Depot From Nothing to $30 Billion, written with the co-founders of Home Depot, was recently published in Japan. Andelman can be reached through his Web site at www.andelman.com.