Zbigniew Brzezinski Quotes

I look three to five years ahead, not 10 years behind.

An entrepreneur never thinks of quarter-on-quarter; he thinks for 25 years, 50 years.

Long-term planning is often undervalued by our indefinite short-term world.

I think three-to-five years ahead minimum. I have a short-term plan, a five-year plan and a decade plan.

I've always liked to think ahead. Not stupid-far ahead. A hundred years doesn't interest me. But 20 years interests me, and more for what happens to humans as opposed to things.

Think as you work, for in the final analysis, your worth to your company comes not only in solving problems, but also in anticipating them.

I think so many people are reactive... they see things in a short term way they're right up against it.

I have always been fascinated with those who try to look over the horizon and see things that are coming at us.

Vision with action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.

In order to have your short term policies accepted, you have to have your long term policies understood.

One thing I've tried to never do is make wish lists. I try to have a very steppingstone mentality about this whole thing, where as soon as you make one step you visualize the next step, not five steps ahead.

I'm always good at seeing five, ten steps ahead. Like, really thinking ahead, you know? Reverse engineering, whatever it is, you know.

I don't think any guy goes into a season worrying about the next season.

America looks 10 minutes ahead; Japan looks 10 years.

I'm no genius. I'm not at all; I just happen to look five or 10 years ahead and think things through.

You politicians have got to look further ahead; you always got a Putter in your hands, when you ought to have a Driver.

Strategy is about shaping the future.

My job is to think beyond the immediate.

Focus too much on the near-term and you won't get tomorrow's customers, focus too much on the long-term and you won't get today's.

Men of action," whose minds are too busy with the day's work to see beyond it. They are essential men, we cannot do without them, and yet we must not allow all our vision to be bound by the limitations of "men of action.

I do not like the phrase: Never cross a bridge till you come to it. The world is owned by men who cross bridges on their imaginations miles and miles in advance of the procession.

It's important to think big, but you've got to work small.

Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.

Communists should set an example in being practical as well as far-sighted. For only by being practical can they fulfil the appointed tasks, and only far-sightedness can prevent them from losing their bearings in the march forward.

The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardner objected that the tree was slow growing and wouldn't reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, "In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!