Donald Rumsfeld

If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.

Leave the President’s family business to him. You will have plenty to do without trying to manage the First Family. They are likely to do fine without your help.

Don’t say “the White House wants.” Buildings can’t want.

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.

Don’t think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. As Charles De Gaulle said, the cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.

If in doubt, don’t. If still in doubt, do what’s right.

You do your job, you keep your job. Do it well, you get a better job.

When the leader lacks confidence, the followers lack commitment.

Even as entrepreneurs, we rely on people to get things done. We may have the original idea, but moving it forward can involve hundreds of people. Every person becomes integral to the overall success.

You will launch many projects, but have time to finish only a few. So think, plan, develop, launch and tap good people to be responsible. Give them authority and hold them accountable. Trying to do too much yourself creates a bottleneck.

But real leadership comes from the quiet nudging of an inner voice. It comes from realizing that the time has come to move beyond waiting to doing.

You don’t reward failure by promoting those responsible for it, because all you get is more failure.

In real life, if I were firing you, I’d tell you what a great job you did, how fantastic you are, and how you can do better someplace else. If somebody steals, that’s different, but generally speaking, you want to let them down as lightly as possible. It’s not a very pleasant thing. I don’t like firing people.

If you wouldn’t follow yourself, why should anyone else?

A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.

I feel like the thing we can do is celebrate people doing great work and create more cultural momentum and awareness that this is an important thing in the world. So when the next economic crisis hits and people are talking about where to cut from the budget, science isn’t the thing.

Leaders, true leaders, take responsibility for the success of the team, and understand that they must also take responsibility for the failure.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

If you aspire to be a leader of your own country, you must speak your own language, for God’s sake.

Your performance depends on your people. Select the best, train them and back them. When errors occur, give sharper guidance. If errors persist or if the fit feels wrong, help them move on. The country cannot afford amateur hour in the White House.

Don’t necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.