Have confidence in your decisions. Make them expeditiously, and stay with them as long as you believe you are correct no matter what others say. However, when you conclude you were in error, do not hesitate to announce the error publicly and change course.
Interpretation
Trust your decisions and act swiftly, but be ready to admit mistakes and adjust when necessary.
This quote emphasizes the importance of confidence in one's decision-making process. It advocates for making decisions quickly and standing by them as long as they seem correct. However, it also acknowledges the necessity of humility and the courage to admit when one is wrong and to change direction accordingly. This balance is crucial in leadership and personal growth, as it highlights the dual importance of conviction and adaptability.
In practice
In a leadership meeting, you could quote this to encourage team members to take initiative.
No, I am not a homosexual. If I were a homosexual, I would hope I would have the courage to say so. What's cruel is that you are forcing me to say I am not a homosexual. This means you are putting homosexuals down. I don't want to do that.
In a neighborhood, as in life, a clean bandage is much, much better than a raw or festering wound.
The knife of corruption endangered the life of New York City. The scalpel of the law is making us well again.
I was not afraid of the press or the militants. It was uncomfortable, but I was not afraid. With respect to the press, I knew I knew more than they knew about city matters. With respect to the militants, I understood it. I mean, everybody believed in those days that they were being screwed, you know, that somebody was getting ahead of them.
There's a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough.
Our great mistake is to try to exact from each person virtues which he does not possess, and to neglect the cultivation of those which he has.
Silence has many advantages…I write and draw in my notebook and I read anything I please.
You see, I get such fun out of thinking that I don't want to destroy this most pleasant machine that makes life such a big kick.
Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.
The way to get on in the world is to be neither more nor less wise, neither better nor worse than your neighbours.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.