Mark Batterson Quotes

You can't just stick with something that doesn't work.

We need to have leaders that aren't afraid to go against the grain to call out failures in leadership.

There is no movement without the first follower. See, we are told that we all need to be leaders but that would be ineffective. The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.

It [is] that courage that Africa most desperately needs.

I find that when you open the door toward openness and transparency, a lot of people will follow you through.

I challenged things that needed to be challenged at Purdue.

I've never worried about payback. People are hungry for leadership that's not afraid of political consequence.

A chief is a man who assumes responsibility. He says 'I was beaten', he does not say 'My men were beaten.'

You who choose to lead must follow. But if you fall, you fall alone.

In days when the public safety is imminently threatened, and the fate of a nation may hang upon a single act, we owe frank speech, above all other men, to him who is highest in authority. I shall speak to you as man to man.

You are either part of the solution or part of the problem.

If you want to do things – to change things – you must run the risk of not succeeding.

[Referring to political leaders:] Since they take the risks, they need the laurels.

Our landings … have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops …. The troops, the air, and the navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.

It’s very difficult to come to grips with how we screwed this up, but we screwed this up.

Our trouble is that we do not demand enough of the people who represent us. We are responsible for their activities.... we must spur them to more imagination and enterprise in making a push into the unknown; we must make clear that we intend to have responsible and courageous leadership.

If heads don’t roll, nobody makes any changes

Changing course implies an admission that the previous course was incorrect, and no administration likes to do that.

It's not hard to stand behind one's successes. But to accept responsibility for one's failures... that is devilishly hard

I push reforms. I tell the truth to people, even when it's tough for the country.

When you win, you are at the top, and when you lose, you are a stupid manager.

When the locker room needing shaking up, I did it. I remained myself, a leader, until the end.

People are starving for truth and leadership.

If things don't work in education, we need change.

When I joined the Marines, I went to Quantico for training. One of the first things I learned is that you can drop out of a run, a couple runs. You can fail the test or a couple tests in a row, and they'd give you a second try. But if you lied about anything, you were gone that afternoon. That's how important integrity is in the military.