Decision Making
How leaders weigh options, use judgment, and commit to a course of action.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 9:20 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
9:20 of 14:26All quotes from this speech →
Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.
SourceLast public address (1865) · via Wikiquote
If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.
SourceThe House Divided speech (1858) · via Wikiquote
Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be, as the egg is to the fowl; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.
SourceLast public address (1865) · via Wikiquote
A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, 'Huh. It works. It makes sense.'
Source"The Candidate" in The New Yorker (31 May 2004) · via Wikiquote
When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, 'Nah, what's wrong with a horse?' That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.
SourceFrom articles on Evan Carmichael's website · via Wikiquote
I shall not be deprived ... of a comfort in the worst event, if I retain a consciousness of having acted to the best of my judgment.
Sourceletter to Colonel Bassett, Jun. 19, 1775 · Mount Vernon Ladies' Association on George Washington's Mount Vernon
System in all things is the soul of business. To deliberate maturely, & execute promptly is the way to conduct it to advantage. With me, it has always been a maxim, rather to let my designs appear from my works, than by my expressions.
SourceGeorge Washington to James Anderson · National Archives on Founders Online
For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · via jamesclear.com
A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.
SourceNewspaper interview (1902), when asked what qualities a politician required, Halle, Kay, Irrepressible Churchill · via Wikiquote
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
Don't swap horses in crossing a stream.
When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.
If the critics are right that I've made all my decisions based on polls, then I must not be very good at reading them.
Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hardwired not to always think clearly when we're scared. And the country's scared.
I don't care whether you're driving a hybrid or an SUV. If you're headed for a cliff, you have to change direction. That's what the American people called for in November, and that's what we intend to deliver.
My job as a coach is to make good decisions. It's not to go out there and block or tackle.
Game management, game decisions, adjustments, seeing things during games - it's all important.
Being flooded with information doesn't mean we have the right information or that we're in touch with the right people.
I don't have a magic formula for prioritizing the world's problems.
I tend to approach things from a physics framework. And physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy.
My opinion is it's a bridge too far to go to fully autonomous cars.
It's not as though we can keep burning coal in our power plants. Coal is a finite resource, too. We must find alternatives, and it's a better idea to find alternatives sooner then wait until we run out of coal, and in the meantime, put God knows how many trillions of tons of CO2 that used to be buried underground into the atmosphere.
A director makes 100 decisions an hour. Students ask me how you know how to make the right decision, and I say to them, 'If you don't know how to make the right decision, you're not a director.'
The financial markets generally are unpredictable. So that one has to have different scenarios... The idea that you can actually predict what's going to happen contradicts my way of looking at the market.
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.
Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.
I like to play cards. I'm not very good, because I don't want to calculate, I just play by instinct. But I've learned a lot of business philosophy by playing poker.
It is very difficult to get people to focus on the most important things when you're in boom times.
I always say, decisions I make, I live with them. There's always ways you can correct them or ways you can do them better. At the end of the day, I live with them.
Warren Buffet told me once and he said always follow your gut. When you have that gut feeling, you have to go with don't go back on it.
What I've learned in these 11 years is you just got to stay focused and believe in yourself and trust your own ability and judgment.
What I've learned is that if you really want to be successful at something, you'll find that you put the time in. You won't just ask somebody if it's a good idea, you'll go figure out if it's a good idea.
Leaders are not dogmatic. They are principled and know that change is never easy, but when it's necessary, they must lead.
I try not to be an ideologue about anything. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, and I'm willing to evolve.
I create offbeat advice; I don't follow it. I rarely take third-party advice on my investments.
I think what has allowed me to be successful is that I can absorb more information than most and drill down to the key business elements of that information and make faster decisions. And of course, I truly try to enjoy every minute of my life. I can never understand why anyone wouldn't.
A lot of times, I run a thought experiment: 'If I were not at Facebook, what would I be doing to make the world more open?'
Drones can be useful tools, and I am all about useful tools. One of my mottos is 'the right tool for the right job.'
Follow your instincts. That's where true wisdom manifests itself.
As you become more clear about who you really are, you'll be better able to decide what is best for you - the first time around.
It's much easier for me to make major life, multi-million dollar decisions, than it is to decide on a carpet for my front porch. That's the truth.
Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.
In business, if you realize you've made a bad decision, you change it.
I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It's done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer.
Entrepreneurs are natural problem-solvers, which means that we always have ideas for new businesses popping into our heads. Having a lot of options is great, but sometimes it can be hard to focus on one when you are keen to move onto the next.
Believe me, my journey has not been a simple journey of progress. There have been many ups and downs, and it is the choices that I made at each of those times that have helped shape what I have achieved.
I want the least number of decision makers. We want to empower people to get more things done and also give permission to question orthodoxy.
I definitely have found a balance. I've had so many offers in the past to do different movies or different things and I always choose tournaments over it.
I shoot the ball so well that sometimes you fall in love with it and think it'll get you out of certain situations.
On the court, I want to try and get to the free-throw line a little more. And as a point guard, you can always get better at your decision-making and limiting your mistakes.
You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
Throughout my years in business, I discovered something. I would always ask why you do things. The answers that I would invariably get are: 'Oh, that's just the way things are done around here.' Nobody knows why they do what they do. Nobody thinks very deeply about things in business.
And I may often question choices I make as a producer. But I've never questioned the choices I make as a director.
Most of my presumptions about a production are usually wrong.
I committed to directing 'Catch Me If You Can' not because of the divorce component, but principally because Frank Abagnale did things that were the most astonishing scams I had ever heard.
It all starts with the script: it's not worth taking myself away from my family if I don't have something I'm really passionate about.
I think producers are more interested in backing concepts than directors and writers. I don't think that's the right way of making a decision about whether you're going to back a film or not.
When I don't have a movie, I don't take a job just for the sake of working. I just sit it out until I find something I'm passionate about.
I have to feel myself doing what's right. If I'm the arbiter of that instead of letting the guy on TV be that or someone who doesn't know me at all, then I think that's a much better way to live.
When you're an engineer, you want to analyze things a lot. But if you believe that the most important data points are people, then you have to make conclusions in relatively short order. Because you want to push the people who are doing great. And you want to either develop the people who are not or, in a worst case, they need to be somewhere else.
If you're a quarterback, you want everything on your shoulders. You want to be the one to make the decisions.
Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.
In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
Beware of geeks bearing formulas.
A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.
It is a fine game to play - the game of politics - and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong - these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.
It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.
In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.
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