Quotes About Decision-making

The fact that 'goto' can do anything is exactly why we don't use it.

When I asked a Big Dog friend of mine whether it was important to sell up through an organization and obtain consensus along the way, he chuckled, and with a low growl said, "That would be a colossal waste of time—find the 'man,' set up the meeting and do the deal!

At the far end of this infinite distance a coin is being spun which will come down heads or tails. How will you wager? Reason cannot make you choose either, reason cannot prove either wrong.

We do not choose as captain of a ship the most highly born of those aboard.

Imagination decides everything: it creates beauty, justice and happiness, which is the world's supreme good.

Second, the leaders had overcome the enormous pressures on successful companies to take paths they had not chosen and did not necessarily want to follow. The people in charge had remained in control, or had regained control, by doing a lot of soul searching, rejecting a lot of well-intentioned advice, charting their own course, and building the kind of business they wanted to live in, rather than accommodating themselves to a business shaped by outside forces.

There isn't always an absolute right way and a wrong way to do things, but there usually is a better way, a high-percentage way. The positive thinker generally feels that his way will be the right way and nothing will go wrong, if he just believes. The negative thinker disbelieves. He takes every precaution to prevent the wrong thing from happening, and in doing so has a much better chance of things turning out right in the end.

Trump is the wrong man for the job.

Tillerson said, and the floodgates gushed open. "The president can't make a decision. He doesn't know how to make a decision.

Eventually Porter developed a routine and would bring in two to 10 decision memos for him to sign each day. Trump liked signing. It meant he was doing things, and he had an up-and-down penmanship that looked authoritative in black Magic Marker.

I guess you're right," Trump said several times. "We could do that." But then he ignored most reviews or vetting and did what he wanted.

Trump had no understanding of how government functioned. At times he would just start drafting orders himself or dictating

It's not what we did for the country," Cohn said. "It's what we saved him from doing.

But how many more deaths?" Trump asked. "How many more lost limbs? How much longer are we going to be there?

Trump seemed not to remember his own decision because he did not ask about it. He had no list—in his mind or anywhere else—of tasks to complete.

Should I resign?" he asked Colin Powell, who had been the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. "Fuck no!" Powell said. "I told you never to take the job. You never should have taken the job. Trump's a fucking maniac.

For those of you who were critical that nobody paid enough attention to the generals at the beginning of the war, has it occurred to you that you don't want to make that mistake at the end of the war? Secretary Robert Gates

gather all the points of view, the data, integrate them if possible and present the president with some options, get a decision and develop an implementation plan.

The chairman is not in the chain of command.

Scot Harvath wasn't trying to hide. He expected to be seen. That was the plan. Be brief. Be bloody. Be gone. There would be handwringing by the Austrians, of course. But the politics of the assignment weren't his concern. The White House had been crystal clear. Either the Europeans dealt with their problem, or the United States would

it sometimes happens that when one acts quickly and with great resolve, all the indecisiveness and doubt comes afterwards, when it is too late. So

The debate was wearing me out. Once you've posed that question, it won't go away. I think many people kill themselves simply to stop the debate about whether they will or they won't. Anything I thought or did was immediately drawn into the debate. Made a stupid remark—why not kill myself? Missed the bus—better put an end to it all. Even the good got in there. I liked that movie—maybe I shouldn't kill myself.

The debate was wearing me out. Once you've posed that question, it won't go away. I think many people kill themselves simply to stop the debate about whether they will or they won't. Anything I thought or did was immediately drawn into the debate. Made a stupid remark--why not kill myself? Missed the bus--better put an end to it all. Even the good got in there. I liked that movie--maybe I shouldn't kill myself.

like putting a gun in your mouth. But you put it there, you taste it, it's cold and greasy, your finger is on the trigger, and you find that a whole world lies between this moment and the moment you've been planning, when you'll pull the trigger. That world defeats you.