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Control your time. If you're working off your in-box, you're working off the priorities of others. Be sure the staff is working on what you move to them from the President, or the President will be reacting, not leading.
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
Time
Boxes
Move
Control
Sure
Working
Reacting
President
Staff
Moving
Leading
Others
Priorities
More quotes by Donald Rumsfeld
I'm glad you asked. It has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil.
Donald Rumsfeld
I tend over the years to have developed a certain hesitancy about believing that headlines tell the whole story.
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Plan backwards as well as forward. Set objectives and trace back to see how to achieve them. You may find that no path can get you there. Plan forward to see where your steps will take you, which may not be clear or intuitive.
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Look for what's missing. Many advisors can tell a President how to improve what's proposed or what's gone amiss. Few are able to see what isn't there.
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There are things that we know, and there are things that we don't know. Then there are the things that we don't even know that we don't know. Those are the things that are the hardest.
Donald Rumsfeld
No. That's someone else's business. Quagmire is - I don't do quagmires.
Donald Rumsfeld
In unanimity there may well be either cowardice or uncritical thinking.
Donald Rumsfeld
The United States isn't going to do anything that it's not capable of doing. And if we do something, we'll be capable of doing it.
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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.
Donald Rumsfeld
They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer.
Donald Rumsfeld
I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?
Donald Rumsfeld
At 78 years old, I am not surprised at much anymore. Germany has taken divergent positions before, so has France, so has England, so has the US.
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Pieces of intelligence, scraps of intelligence...you run down leads and you run down leads, and you hope that sometimes it works.
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Don't necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.
Donald Rumsfeld
You might be a cunning linguist, but I am a master debater.
Donald Rumsfeld
There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact.
Donald Rumsfeld
Oh my goodness gracious, what you can buy off the Internet in terms of overhead photography. A trained ape can know an awful lot of what is going on in this world, just by punching on his mouse, for a relatively modest cost.
Donald Rumsfeld
Preserve the President's options. He may need them.
Donald Rumsfeld
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.
Donald Rumsfeld
If you can't solve a problem, make it bigger.
Donald Rumsfeld
