Quotes About Decision-making

You can't really yell, 'Charge!' and hope to have your team behind you unless they agree that the hill you are trying to take is a hill you should take.

Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.

We need someone with superb judgement in their own right because, yes, a president can hire the best advisors on Earth, but I guarantee you this: Five advisors will give five different opinions. And it is the president - and the president alone - who always makes the final call.

Yes, I think poker really isn't gambling.

Saying no frees you up to say yes when it matters most.

As you become more senior in your career, it can be thin at the top - It's harder and harder to get unbiased and direct feedback when making decisions. You want people who will speak truth to power. Say no to any 'yes men or women' on your personal board. When you face a personal crossroads, you need honest advisors.

You should get as close to the power when you're pitching something. I got my two biggest breaks with the man who owned CBS and the guy that owned Paramount, because I was dealing with the guy who would say yes or no.

It's important to learn to say no. With tours and all of that stuff, there are so many aspects that go into it, it's easy to have so many people around you saying, 'Oh yes, yes, you can afford this, you can afford this,' and then all of the sudden you've spent $20 million on your stage, and you're like, 'Where's my money?'

I think as a leader, as a captain, it's important to back your instincts, whatever you feel. Yes, it is important to take advice from your colleagues, but in the end what your instincts tell you, you should back that.

I never say no or yes. I just listen to how I feel and follow my emotions.

I have employees that are, you know, other types of diversity, coming to me and saying 'Well, why aren't we focused on these other areas as well?' and I said yes, we should focus them, but, you know, the phrase we use internally is, 'If everything is important, then nothing is important.'

'No' is a dynamic that you've got to master before you can ever master 'yes.'

I think in any organization you want your manager to have a strong opinion. You don't want them to just say, 'Yes, sir' to things they don't believe in.

Yield nothing to love that is denied to discretion.

If a speculator is correct half of the time, he is hitting a good average. Even being right 3 or 4 times out of 10 should yield a person a fortune if he has the sense to cut his losses quickly on the ventures where he is wrong.

I think that the more we, as a state, yield and cede decisions to the federal government, the lesser we'll be for it as a state.

Human decision-making is complex. On our own, our tendency to yield to short-term temptations, and even to addictions, may be too strong for our rational, long-term planning.

Now we teach our leaders that it's your job to put in the systems that enable your people to run your experiments fast and cheap and to keep making them faster and cheaper. Yield as many of your decisions off to the experiment as possible.

The minority yields to the majority!

When I became mayor of New York City, I had a $2.4 billion deficit. And everybody wanted me to raise taxes. I said, 'If I raise taxes, I'll drive people out of New York City, and then I'll be raising taxes again.' So what I did was I cut expenses by 15 percent.

Economics is everywhere, and understanding economics can help you make better decisions and lead a happier life.

If fighting is sure to result in victory, than you must fight, even though the ruler forbid it; if fighting will not result in victory, then you must not fight even at the ruler's bidding.

Over the years, many young actors have approached me: Vusi Kunene, Sello Maake ka Ncube, and Seputla Sebogodi. They all said, 'Hey Bra John, let's do 'The Island and we want you to direct.' But somehow, my heart was not in it or I was busy with something else, so I'd say, 'ja, ja, we'll do it.'

We have to understand that we should, at all times, have the right and the power to make decisions about our bodies. And that is an idea that must be taught at a young age. You can't wait until a person is 18 years old and say, 'Now you have the right'. You have to start that from the gate.