Proactive Decision Making Quotes

All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.

Lack of planning is the cause of most failures.

It is always the sign of the second-rate man when the decision merely meets the present situation. It is the left-over in a decision which gives it its greatest value. It is the carry-over in the decision which helps develop the situation in the way we wish it to be developed. The ablest administrators do not merely draw logical conclusions from the array of facts of the past which their expert assistants bring to them; they have a vision of the future.

One pursues economic theory in too extreme an extent he is likely to be in trouble; you have to consider the reality and blend what you observe as reality with an ingredient of theory, and a little, just a little bit ahead of the time, then you are likely to succeed.

No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.

There can be no wise politics without thought beforehand.

After 2019, one thing that really stood out to me was, early on, not going too hard at the ball and allowing myself to get in without too much risk.

Present thinking people kill the future.

He does not however postpone making decisions.

If you do not design the future, someone or something else will design it for you.

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

It is better to act too quickly than it is to wait too long.

The most important work of the executive is to identify the changes that have already happened. The important thing . . . is to exploit the changes that have already occurred and to use them as opportunities.

I think the biggest single thing that causes difficulty in the business world is the short-term view. We become obsessed with it. But it forces bad decisions.

This idea of anticipation is key to investing and to business generally. You can't wait for an opportunity to become obvious. You have to think, "Here's what other people and companies have done under certain circumstances. Now, under these new circumstances, how is this management likely to behave?"

A decision will be made before it's too late or soon thereafter.

I think somehow people should be encouraged to think about a very long time horizon and I think this is true for businesses, it's true for governments and it's true for people doing things in the non-profit sector.

I have these new policies toward my life, like 'I will not accelerate when I see the yellow light.'

Address things now that could otherwise turn into regrets.

Everything begins with the resolve to take the first step. From that action, wisdom arises and change begins. Without action, nothing changes.

Taking control of your own creation, you can ultimately affect your future.

To be a visionary, all you have to do is make decisions based off of your eyes instead of your ears and your memory.

The whole enterprise of teaching managers is steeped in the ethic of data-driven analytical support. The problem is, the data is only available about the past. So the way we've taught managers to make decisions and consultants to analyze problems condemns them to taking action when it's too late.

We all choose things, and we also all choose against things. I want to be the kind of person who chooses for more than chooses against.