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Don't be a bottleneck. If a matter is not a decision for the President or you, delegate it. Force responsibility down and out. Find problem areas, add structure and delegate. The pressure is to do the reverse. Resist it.
Donald Rumsfeld
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Donald Rumsfeld
Age: 88 †
Born: 1932
Born: July 9
Died: 2021
Died: June 29
Author
Businessperson
Diplomat
Former U.S. Secretary Of Defense
Military Officer
Politician
Chicago
Illinois
Donald Henry Rumsfeld
Force
Resist
President
Reverse
Problem
Add
Find
Areas
Bottleneck
Matter
Structure
Bottlenecks
Pressure
Delegation
Decision
Delegate
Responsibility
Delegates
More quotes by Donald Rumsfeld
I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?
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First rule of politics: you can't win unless you're on the ballot. Second rule: If you run, you may lose. And, if you tie, you do not win.
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The worst mistake is to have the best ladder and the wrong wall.
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Have a deputy and develop a successor. Don't be consumed by the job or you'll risk losing your balance. Keep your mooring lines to the outside world - family, friends, neighbors, people out of government, and people who may not agree with you.
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Don't divide the world into 'them' and 'us.' Avoid infatuation with or resentment of the press, the Congress, rivals, or opponents. Accept them as facts. They have their jobs and you have yours.
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Preserve the President's options. He may need them.
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Don't speak ill of your predecessors or successors. You didn't walk in their shoes.
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A terrorist can attack any time, any place using any technique and you can't defend everywhere against every technique at every moment.
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When starting at the bottom, be willing to learn from those at the top.
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You might be a cunning linguist, but I am a master debater.
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Don't automatically obey Presidential directives if you disagree or if you suspect he hasn't considered key aspects of the issue.
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When you raise issues with the President, try to come away with both that decision and also a precedent. Pose issues so as to evoke broader policy guidance. This can help to answer a range of similar issues likely to arise later.
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Our task, your task... is to try to connect the dots before something happens. People say, 'Well, where's the smoking gun?' Well, we don't want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction.
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The reality is that [Barack] Obama has some 15 countries in the current Libya coalition. President Bush put together close to 50 countries for the Afghan coalition, some 40 countries for the Iraqi coalition, more than 90 countries for the Proliferation Security Initiative and over 90 countries in the Global War on Terror.
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[on Osama bin Laden] He is either alive and well or alive and not too well or not alive.
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Most of the 50 or so invitations you receive each week come from people inviting the President's Chief of Staff, not you. If you doubt that, ask your predecessor how many he received last week.
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Don't 'over-control' like a novice pilot. Stay loose enough from the flow that you can observe it, modify, and improve it.
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It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.
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Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.
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Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.
Donald Rumsfeld
