The ability to be cool, confident, and decisive in crisis is not an inherited characteristic but is the direct result of how well the individual has prepared himself for the battle.
Interpretation
Preparation is key to handling crises effectively.
This quote emphasizes the importance of preparation in developing crucial skills to face challenges effectively. It suggests that the traits necessary to remain calm and make confident decisions in difficult situations come from intentional preparation and practice, rather than being innate qualities one is born with.
In practice
During a leadership workshop to inspire participants to improve their crisis management skills.
The destiny of our land, the air we breathe, the water we drink is not in the mystical hands of an uncontrollable agent, it is in our hands. A future which brings the balancing of our resources-preserving quality with quantity - is a future limited only by the boundaries of our will to get the job done.
The recent upsurge of public concern over environmental questions reflects a belated recognition that man has been too cavalier in his relations with nature. Unless we arrest the depredations that have been inflicted so carelessly on our natural systems-which exist in an intricate set of balances-we face the prospect of ecological disaster.
If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.
If the President does it, it can't be illegal.
We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another - until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.
Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively, and if after all of this time, and all of this sacrifice, and all of this support, there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership not tied to the mistakes and policies of the past.
I do have a belief in God, and no matter what happens to me, things are gonna be OK. It doesn't matter whether the tumours have spread or not, because either way, I'm gonna turn out a winner.
My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate.
Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.
The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there... and still on your feet.
Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power - not because they don't see it, but because they see it and they don't want it to exist.
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.
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