Seneca the Younger Quotes
Our plans miscarry because they have no aim.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Moral Epistles, Volume II. Translated by Richard M. Gummere, Harvard University Press, 1920, p. 75.
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.
This is true fir government even more so than business. Politicians tend to focus on policy making and having vision, but most policy visions fail for lack of execution.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (/ˈsɛnɪkə/; c. 4 BC – AD 65), usually known as Seneca, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work, satirist from the Silver Age of Latin literature.
