Donald Rumsfeld Quotes

I tend not to dwell on the parallels between chess and business, chess and the martial arts, or any two things for that matter, because the truth is that all pursuits are connected if we gain an eye for the thematic links.

I think it's really important to look at the big picture instead of just one competition.

The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.

Intellectuals are good at seeing the big picture. But they are not so good at process.

Action is typical of the American style, thought and planning are not; it is considered heresy to state that some problems are not immediately or easily solvable.

You've got to think about big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.

But I also think that the more you reason collectively about what the project should be at the beginning of the process, the more you can improvise later.

Dream in a pragmatic way.

At all times it is better to have a method.

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.

If I spend all of my day in the details as a CEO of a company like Wal-Mart, I think it would be trouble, because I wouldn't really be prepared to speak to the big issues that the country or the world should face.

And Clinton was like that - he saw the whole playing field. He didn't just see the event that he was at or the circumstances of that week or that month. He saw the whole playing field all the time.

The problem is that many times people suspend their common sense because they get drowned in business models and Harvard business school teachings.

It's the whole big picture that we have to look at to create an organization that wins over the long term. And to just shoot from the hip on a decision based on winning over a 10-game period. No, that doesn't make sense.

Good plans shape good decisions. That's why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true.

I have to take decisions—not back hunches.

The challenge of our times is to leave nothing to chance.

Discretion--humble as it seems, it has often brought about successes in which talent failed and genius did not succeed. Discretion in the great affairs of the world does wonders, and safety depends frequently and is chiefly derived from it....

When the President is a moralist, he needs a process that will make up for the natural shortcomings of such a style—an inattention to second-step thinking, an allergy to detail, a tendency not to see the point of having dissenters, a habit of allowing certainty to override considerations of risk. It is the National Security Advisor’s responsibility to fill a President’s strategic gaps, not to exacerbate them.

One man of tolerable Abilities may work great Changes, and accomplish great Affairs among Mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and … makes the execution of that same plan his sole Study and Business.

Do not speculate; get data and calculate.

One of the biggest challenges we have, as business owners and people, is that we think in linear terms.

I've always been a strategy kind of guy. I like laying things out and having a plan. Maybe not always a plan, but an approach and a vibe.

Coaching was something I've never had much interest in. I've always been a big-picture guy, like a manager has to be.

I think women have a unique talent for being able to see the forest and the trees at the same time.