Max McKeown Quotes

Today's tactical victory does not guarantee tomorrow's strategic success.

In business, I think the most important thing is to position yourself for long-term and not be too impatient, which I am by nature, and I have to control myself.

I think long-term, not short-term.

It is according to the shapes that I lay the plans for victory, but the multitude does not comprehend this. Although everyone can see the outward aspects, none understands the way in which I have created victory.

There is nothing so weak, for working purposes, as this enormous importance attached to immediate victory. There is nothing that fails like success.

The expert in battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage and does not demand it from his men.

And, partly, I had found that theory-structure was a superpower in helping one get what one wanted. As I had early discovered in school wherein I had excelled without labor, guided by theory, while many others, without mastery of theory failed despite monstrous effort. Better theory I thought had always worked for me and, if now available could make me acquire capital and independence faster and better assist everything I loved.

It's important to think big, but you've got to work small.

We have to always look ahead enough moves to be well prepared, even for victory!

We are as pieces of chess engaged in victory and defeat!

Two types of choices seem to me to have been crucial in tipping the outcomes [of the various societies' histories] towards success or failure: long-term planning and willingness to reconsider core values. On reflection we can also recognize the crucial role of these same two choices for the outcomes of our individual lives.

The fundamental basis of above-average performance in the long run is sustainable competitive advantage.

Without a correct strategy the victory is impossible. But even the most correct strategy cannot give the victory under unfavorable objective conditions.

Every battle is won before it is fought.

We don't realize that we face a frustrating situation in which we win every battle, but we lose the war.

Took awhile, got the jokers out of the deck now, I'm holdin all the cards and niggas wanna play chess now

Grand strategy is the art of looking beyond the present battle and calculating ahead. Focus on your ultimate goal and plot to reach it.

Think about the decade after Iraq, not just the day after.

In warfare, first lay plans which will ensure victory, and then lead your army to battle; if you will not begin with stratagem but rely on brute strength alone, victory will no longer be assured.

You want to be an alchemist so badly? Don't wait to react to the immediate problem. Plan ahead. Look at the big picture and you won't ever have to deal with that problem. Better to save yourself from a major catastrophe than drag your feet over a bunch of little inconveniences.

People often overestimate what will happen in the next two years and underestimate what will happen in ten.

Strategy is about shaping the future.

If we start deciding, based on guesses or emotions, whether we will or won't participate in a business where we should have some long run edge, we're in trouble.

Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good and it trains you to think objectively when you're in trouble

My job is to think beyond the immediate.