It take 15,000 casualties to train a major general.
Interpretation
Leadership often requires difficult experiences and significant sacrifices to develop competence.
Ferdinand Foch's quote emphasizes that the journey to becoming a capable leader, particularly in a military context, is fraught with challenges and losses. It suggests that the experiences gained from facing and overcoming adversity, often through painful consequences, are essential for personal growth and effective leadership.
In practice
In a talk about resilience, one might quote Foch to illustrate the costs of leadership.
The military mind always imagines that the next war will be on the same lines as the last. That has never been the case and never will be. One of the great factors on the next war will be aircraft obviously. The potentialities of aircraft attack on a large scale are almost incalculable.
My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.
A battle won is a battle which we will not acknowledge to be lost.
One is defeated only when one accepts defeat.
You know, I think when people are in important positions in big organizations, they often get tied up with the minutia of managing money, managing things. They often forget that people deserve to be led.
Our Country will, I believe, sooner forgive an Officer for attacking his Enemy than for letting it alone.
The main quality of leadership..........is courage ! If you can dream it, you can do it!
So you have to force yourself out of a comfort zone and really try to figure out what are the key ingredients, the key skill sets, the key perspectives that are necessary, and then figure out a way to attract the very best people to fill those particular roles.
Nothing can be made except by makers, nothing can be managed except by managers. Money cannot make anything and money cannot manage anything.
There is no doubt that the princess did become a queen---not only on the screen. One of the most loved, one of the most skillful, one of the most intelligent, one of the most sensitive, charming actresses---and friends, in my life---but also in the later stages of her life, the UNICEF ambassador to the children of the world. The generosity, sensitivity, the nobility of her service to the children of the world and the mothers of the world will never be forgotten.
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