I couldn't live with myself if I thought that these big strategic choices for my generation were there, and I wasn't even making them - or I was making them according to what was expedient rather than what I actually thought was right.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker feels compelled to make major decisions based on moral conviction rather than short-term convenience.
- In plain terms
- I must make hard choices based on what is right, not what is easy.
- What can you take from it?
- Leadership requires making difficult decisions based on personal conviction.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you decide between expedient and right?
- What weighs more in decisions, values or outcomes?
Another view
Personal conviction can sometimes conflict with public consensus or data.
More from Tony Blair
That's the art of leadership. To make sure that what shouldn't happen, doesn't happen.
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