Being president is like running a cemetery: you've got a lot of people under you and nobody's listening.
Interpretation
Being in a leadership position often feels isolating, as your concerns may go unheard by those you lead.
This quote by William J. Clinton humorously expresses the challenges of leadership, particularly in a high-stakes position like the presidency. It suggests that, while leaders have many responsibilities and people looking to them for guidance, they often feel disconnected and unheard, much like a caretaker of a cemetery who oversees many yet lacks engagement from the living.
In practice
A motivational speech on the challenges of leadership at a business summit.
You know, there was a recent poll which said that young people in the generation of the students here felt it was far more likely that they would see a UFO than that they would draw Social Security... It's very important you understand this. Once you understand this, you realize this is not an episode from the X Files, and you're not more likely to see a UFO if you do certain specific things.
When we got organized as a country, [and] wrote a fairly radical Constitution, with a radical Bill of Rights, giving radical amounts of freedom to Americans, it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly...When personal freedom is being abused, you have to move to limit it.
For too long we've been told about 'us' and 'them.' Each and every election we see a new slate of arguments and ads telling us that 'they' are the problem, not 'us.' But there can be no 'them' in America. There's only us.
There is a huge body of business evidence now showing that energy savings give better service at lower cost with higher profit. We have to tear down barriers to successful markets and we have to create incentives to enter them.
Demand that your government pays more attention. It's immoral that people in Africa die like flies of diseases that no one dies of in the United States. And the more disease there is, the more political unrest there will be, leading to more Darfurs, which the U.S. will have to pay to fix.
I was not elected to produce a pile of vetoes.
The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.
Discipline is the soul of an army.
Some of the best advice I've had comes from junior officers and enlisted men.
We need to stop telling [women], "Get a mentor and you will excel." Instead, we need to tell them, "Excel and you will get a mentor.
Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act.
Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not suited for, nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do.
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