Arnold J. Toynbee Quotes
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
Arnold J. Toynbee, 1852-1883, English Economic Historian & Reformer, Uncle of Historian Arnold J. Toynbee, Lectures on The Industrial Revolution in England, 1884
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
At the time Eigen was serving as the CEO of a corporation that ran various programs under contract to the Federal Government. Two decades later, the founder of Facebook, a man whose goals were never set low, had a more sophisticated way of phrasing this principle. See {631133}.
This quotation not only applies to business but also to Government programs and operations as well. Most government administrators, at the insistence of their government state goals and objectives which can be measured. Failure to make the goals of your plan has adverse consequences for the government executive—smaller budget, fewer people, less influence, promotions blocked. So most government as we; as private sector executives negotiate a plan that they can readily meet. But when the do meet the plan, the serious problems of society are still with us. They have failed in the second way. Culturally, that kind of failure is not so regarded by most and even brings praise and rewards. The first kind of failure—missing a plan that really could solve a major problem—is more negative for a person’s position and career in government and the private sector. Yet only by choosing plans that well might be missed, can we really make significant breakthroughs. See {633644} for an earlier, not as sophisticated, quotation on this theme.
Arnold Joseph Toynbee CH FBA was a British historian, a philosopher of history, an author of numerous books and a research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's College London. From 1918 to 1950, Toynbee was considered a leading specialist on international affairs.
