John Zimmer Quotes

I don't think through anything I do. I just do it, and it's oftentimes landed me in huge amounts of trouble.

Inaccurate analysis produces faulty insights and bad decisions - which lead to losing a tremendous amount of money.

It feels great to have your own views reflected back to you, and you feel so right, but actually it's very dangerous. Because to make good decisions, you need to have a clear view of what all the options are.

I'm always surprised when the corporate world does stupid things, because they're often not very stupid in hindsight.

Leaders can get stuck in groupthink because they're really not listening, or they're listening only to what they want to listen to, or they actually think they're so right that they're not interested in listening. And that leads to a lot of suboptimal solutions in the world.

Wishful thinking is not sound public policy.

I never ever take into consideration the consequences of my actions until it's too late.

John Travolta said he sometimes lets his friends take control of his airplane even though they don't know what they're doing. Then Travolta said he often does the same thing with his career.

If a decision-making process is flawed and dysfunctional, decisions will go awry.

The dumb-manager theory of business problems just didn't hold water for me. There had to be a deeper reason why smart people would make decisions that lead to failure.

Many of our choices have led to the predicaments we are presently complaining about.

And that's what I liked about it, because they are, in the beginning, your little beautiful stock figures, who then make a decision to preserve their futures, but the decision they make isn't completely right, and it destroys their futures.

People go down bad paths and they make bad decisions, but it's always justified in their head.

Even the simplest things, I'm guilty of making really bad decisions a lot of the time.

Good intentions rarely make good policy.

Cardinals are never off-base. They are often ill-advised.

The trouble with General Hooker is that he has his headquarters where his hindquarters ought to be.

Historical analogy is the last refuge of people who can't grasp the current situation.

… people are far from acting generally according to the dictates of their interests, but oftener in consequence of their passions, though it may even prove injurious to their interests.

It’s amazing how much research has gone into making some of the worst decisions.

There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.

Where we have blundered into trying to force a policy or decision, even though wise and right, we have impeded if not interrupted the realization of our own aims.

… when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an Assembly can a perfect production be expected?

You want people with different life experiences as a backstop against bad decision.

When you're the president, there's tremendous respect, and everybody goes out of their way respecting you and honoring you... it can be a trap. Nobody says 'Boo' to you, and nobody tells you you're wrong, hardly, if you have the wrong people around you.