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If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.

Donald Rumsfeld

You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Army War
Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Death Encouragement Tendency War
If you develop rules, never have more than ten.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Advice Rule
Reduce the number of lawyers. They are like beavers – they get in the middle of the stream and dam it up.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Lawyer Reduce Stream
Everyone’s saying you can’t do anything until you can do everything.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Motivational Work Hard
If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Criticism Inspirational
What you measure improves.” A corollary rule in the military is that “You get what you inspect, not what you expect.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Expectation Improvement Inspect Measure Military Rule
Arguments of convenience lack integrity and inevitably trip you up.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Argument Convenience Inevitable Integrity
Think ahead. Don’t let day-to-day operations drive out planning.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Business Operation Planning Thinking
The way to do well is to do well.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Inspirational One Liner
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
If it were a fact, it wouldn’t be called intelligence.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Fact Intelligence
There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don’t know.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Imagination Knowledge
Don’t necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.
DONALD RUMSFELD

Edge Leadership Necessary
Reduce the layers of management. They put distance between the top of an organization and the customers.
DONALD RUMSFELD

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

Ill Shoes Speak Success Walk

If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.

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If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.

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