Summits are best at dealing with problems, where the need for action is urgent and the range of possible actions limited. They are less good at dealing with opportunities.
Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.
Our age is before all things a practical one. It demands of us all clear and tangible results of our work.
Just as men cannot eat slogans, neither can statesmen solve problems with rhetorical cliches and abstract formulas.
The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity. To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. But complexity blocks all three steps.
There are real solutions right now for us if we stand up with the courage of our convictions.
It's very easy to have slogans and rhetoric that people will follow, but eventually the slogans fall away.
One of the biggest complaints readers have about my work is that I don't tell them often enough what they can do. I do think this is an area where journalism sometimes falls short. We describe a really grim situation but don't really explain to people what they can do about it.
More and more, our clients expect not only relevant advice, not only setting a road map or helping them plan, but being committed to business results.
The idealists dream and the dream is told, and the practical men listen and ponder and bring back the truth and apply it to human life, and progress and growth and higher human ideals come into being and so the world moves ever on.
