Carl von Clausewitz Quotes

Uncertainty is not an indication of poor leadership; it underscores the need for leadership.

As a first-time CEO, I wasn't sure if I would scale to run IronPort long-term. But I wanted a legitimate shot at it.

I have always been up for risks, but only because I had full confidence and faith in the vision of my directors.

After we have thought out everything carefully in advance and have sought and found without prejudice the most plausible plan, we must not be ready to abandon it at the slightest provocation. should this certainty be lacking, we must tell ourselves that nothing is accomplished in warfare without daring; that the nature of war certainly does not let us see at all times where we are going; that what is probable will always be probable though at the moment it may not seem so; and finally, that we cannot be readily ruined by a single error, if we have made reasonable preparations.

The team should have implicit confidence in the captain's decisions.

If you're asked something on a movie set and you say 'I don't know,' you lose confidence in every department. What you need to say is 'I'll have that for you in five minutes.'

One of the things I learned in the military is sometimes you don't know what mistakes you make for a long time. But as you go through a campaign, there's lots of decision points you make, and you don't know whether those are gonna be the right decision points or not.

Uncertainty is a permanent part of the leadership landscape. It never goes away.

But I don't bet the farm on any of those possibilities, either. I'm also preparing, intelligently, to walk away from this, and walk away from it happy to have had the experience.

You know, I don't know what the future will bring, but I'm ready for whatever comes!

Courage is willingness to take the risk once you know the odds. Optimistic overconfidence means you are taking the risk because you don't know the odds. It's a big difference.

Well, you know, any defense force worth its salt has to be able to deal with uncertainty, has to be able to deal with events that we may not have planned for.

The directors you trust the most are the ones, when you ask them a question, they've got the guts to say, 'I don't know.'

I emphasize... that the Harrimans showed great courage and loyalty and confidence in us, because three or four of us were really running the business, the day to day business.

I believe the more difficult the circumstances, the more people will be inclined to trust those in charge at the moment.

Take our own company as an example: We're living proof, we jump with our own parachutes.

Any leader needs to be constantly interested in what's going on in the world, and constantly ready - even when things are going well - to change.

Mistakes, after all, are endemic to foreign and military policy given the unpredictability of events and the difficulty of securing reliable information in a place like Iraq.

Once you meet an entrepreneur like Jack Ma, you just want to make sure you bet on him. It's not a hard decision.

You have to muster a certain amount of belief that you're not making a mistake and you're not a fool. And this means you have to have faith.

Successful organizations, including the Military, have learned that the higher the risk, the more necessary it is to engage everyone's commitment and intelligence.

I’ve worked as a leader for many years and I’ve always trained myself to be prepared for the worst.

The most important attribute of leadership is to trust yourself and believe in your own thinking.

Leadership involves risk-taking.

A leader with no doubts leads badly.