Jeffrey Skilling Quotes

In a company, hundreds of decisions get made, but objectives and goals are thin.

If I had to do my life over, I would change every single thing I have done.

I took a lot of wrong decisions, and got talked into a lot of things. Of course, if I could go back in time, I might change some things, but wouldn't everyone? I have no regrets.

When you look back on anything in life, hindsight being 20/20, some things you'd like to have done a little differently.

If, in 2008, I could have not been in equities, I wouldn't have been in equities. If I could have not bet on the Seahawks in the Super Bowl, I wouldn't have bet on the Seahawks. Life and statesmanship are not lived with the benefit of hindsight.

The lessons of experience are always learned too late.

If i had to do it all over again? Why not, I would do it a little bit differently.

I think everybody at IBM knows the early 1990s disaster, and it's in our fabric that you cannot miss the ship.

Uncertainty is a permanent part of the leadership landscape. It never goes away.

I don't harp on what I could change about the past, because I can't go back and change it. But definitely a lot of things I would change.

There are moments in one's life where you look back and you say, 'Well, I wish I had done this differently.'

You can't help but... with 20/20 hindsight, go back and say, 'Look, had we done something different, we probably wouldn't be facing what we are facing today.'

We recognize the need to adapt to a changing competitive environment.

I have looked back on situations and thought that I could have handled a few differently and probably better.

I also believe that it is time to begin the fundamental analysis of how we got here, what led us here and what we need to do in order to ensure that we are equipped with the best possible intelligence as we face these issues in the future.

What might seem like a good idea to somebody at 21 is probably not going to seem like a good idea at 50, but you don't know that until you get there.

Large organizations don't worship shareholders or customers, they worship the past. If it were otherwise, it wouldn't take a crisis to set a company on a new path.

Mistakes, after all, are endemic to foreign and military policy given the unpredictability of events and the difficulty of securing reliable information in a place like Iraq.

There was a point in time when I was in dire need of changing the way the model agency was working.

Going into Somalia, I didn't anticipate how many people's lives would be affected by it. In hindsight, I certainly wish I had taken more time to think about that, but I can't change it.

There are many things that, if I have to relive, maybe I will do it another way. But I would not like to look back and think what I have not been able to.

It's important to have a really clear strategy so when you are in business, you only have to make micro-strategy changes.

You can look back at anything and wish you'd done something differently.

As a first-time CEO, I wasn't sure if I would scale to run IronPort long-term. But I wanted a legitimate shot at it.

As not infrequently happens in the affairs of war, it is easier to point out mistakes after they are committed, than to see and avoid them amid the difficulties and dangers by which the military commander is at the moment surrounded.