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Amidst all the clutter, beyond all the obstacles, aside from all the static, are the goals set. Put your head down, do the best job possible, let the flak pass, and work towards those goals.

Donald Rumsfeld

Don’t speak ill of your predecessors or successors. You didn’t walk in their shoes.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Ill Shoes Speak Success Walk
Arguments of convenience lack integrity and inevitably trip you up.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Argument Convenience Inevitable Integrity
If you try to please everybody, somebody’s not going to like it.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Please Try
Presidential leadership needn’t always cost money. Look for low- and no-cost options. They can be surprisingly effective.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Leadership Money Option President
If the staff lacks policy guidance against which to test decisions, their decisions will be random.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Decision Guidance Lack Random
There are no “knowns.” There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Deep Philosophy
Agreement can always be reached by increasing the generality of the conclusion; when this is done, the form is generally preserved but only the illusion of policy is created.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Agreement Conclusion Creation Illusion Increase Policy
The price of being close to the President is delivering bad news. You fail him if you don’t tell him the truth. Others won’t do it.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Deliver Failure President Price Truth
Be precise. A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error is small.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Dangerous Error Lack Margin
Reduce the layers of management. They put distance between the top of an organization and the customers.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Customer Distance Management Organization
If we know anything, it is that weakness is provocative.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Knowledge Weakness
Remember where you came from.
DONALD RUMSFELD

History One Liner Past Remember
Politics is human beings; it’s addition rather than subtraction.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Government Human Being Politics
Think ahead. Don’t let day-to-day operations drive out planning.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Business Operation Planning Thinking
Every day is filled with numerous opportunities for serious error. Enjoy it.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Enjoyment Error Opportunity Serious
Simply because you do not have evidence that something exists does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn’t exist.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Evidence Existence

Amidst all the clutter, beyond all the obstacles, aside from all the static, are the goals set. Put your head down, do the best job possible, let the flak pass, and work towards those goals.

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Amidst all the clutter, beyond all the obstacles, aside from all the static, are the goals set. Put your head down, do the best job possible, let the flak pass, and work towards those goals.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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