Leaders: You Gotta Think Big

By | April 18, 2018

[April 18, 2018]  At 5:13 am on this date, April 18, 1906, the city of San Francisco, California experienced a massive earthquake that was felt along nearly all of the West Coast.  Massive fires then broke out threatening to kill thousands.  The only way city leaders could control the problem was to think big, act quickly, and not waiver.

“I love Teddy Roosevelt … As a country, we need to think big again.” – Ryan Zinke, U.S. Secretary of the Interior

Death and destruction were to be expected from the earthquake.  Thousands of buildings were destroyed or dangerously damage.  Many people were killed outright in the initial earthquake and many remained missing, trapped in structures never to be found.  But, the uncontrollable fires that followed endangered even greater numbers.

Initially, U.S. Army troops from Fort Mason were deployed with orders to shoot-to-kill anyone found looting.  A dusk-to-dawn curfew was established by the city mayor E.E. Schmitz.  Meanwhile, with many aftershocks and fires that raged uncontained, leaders knew the danger was increasing minute by minute and the city began to experience command failure.

Over 20,000 refugees were trapped by the massive fire in just one location, at the foot of Van Ness Avenue.  Communications were difficult also because telephone and telegraph lines were down.1  As in any emergency, leaders had a hard time establishing exactly where the biggest problems were and had to sort through rumor and bad information to determine exactly what to do.

That is when it was decided that in order to save as much of the city as possible, that someone had to think big and make big decisions.  The military began to dynamite whole city blocks to create firewalls.  The cruiser USS Chicago (CA-14) was dispatched to evacuate the refugees.  Other military leaders made quick decisions without approval from Washington or their headquarters and sprang into action.

One thing that was learned from the disaster was that the city was lucky that military resources were nearby to help control the fires, bring medical aid, rescue survivors, etc.  Despite many bold and big decisions that were made, the one key lesson was that no one was in charge of the full operation.  When 911 occurred many decades later, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani had learned from the San Francisco disaster.

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  1. https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/spring/earthquake.html
Author: Douglas R. Satterfield

Hello. I provide one article every day. My writings are influenced by great thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Jung, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Jean Piaget, Erich Neumann, and Jordan Peterson, whose insight and brilliance have gotten millions worldwide to think about improving ourselves. Thank you for reading my blog.

33 thoughts on “Leaders: You Gotta Think Big

  1. Vernell Haer

    I can’t believe how great this site is. You keep up the good work. That’s my advice pal.

    Reply
  2. Bryan Lee

    Think Big? Schools teach us to only think small and not to rock the boat. That needs to change.

    Reply
  3. Albert Ayer

    Yes, very good article on an important aspect of leadership. This is too often overlooked.

    Reply
    1. Wilson Cox

      I agree. Far too often we don’t see what’s in our face when we are working hard as a leader.

      Reply
  4. Tomas C. Looney

    I found this article very useful. Thinking big can range a lot and is relative to where you are in the chain of command.

    Reply
  5. Jerry Jones

    As usual, spot on with this topic. A common failure in junior leaders is that they don’t think big enough. Not really big like a very senior leader, but “big” relative to what they have responsibility for.

    Reply
  6. Jung-hoon Kim

    A man who knows the path to victory also knows that you get there only one way; thinking bigger than all others.

    Reply
  7. Billy Kenningston

    A very good post today. Thanks. I look forward to reading more.

    Reply
  8. Greg Heyman

    At first I gave the post’s title a laugh and then thought, maybe he’s onto something here. Yes, of course, leaders think big. That is the whole point of being a leader; thinking into the future a little and planning what is needed to accomplish it. We call that a “vision” when we can look into the future but another way is to call it THINKING BIG.

    Reply
  9. Dale Paul Fox

    I’m surprised this is even a topic … I thought it was just plain old commonsensical. Maybe that’s why many folks like me who work hard, save my money, don’t break the law, etc. are doing so well.

    Reply
  10. Eddie Ray Anderson, Jr.

    Thinking big is also a part of thinking far ahead into the future; to plan and bring needed resources together. Without good leaders who do this, we would all be in a serious bind all the time.

    Reply
  11. Bill Sanders, Jr.

    I must commend you on this specific blog post today. It goes to the very issue I have with the school district where my kids go. They are focused on tomorrow and not the future. From the School Superintendent to the School Board, they refuse to look at the big picture. They think small. Slowly, school discipline has been more of a problem, declining national test scores, etc. I see more of this until they learn to “think big.” Thanks GEN Satterfield.

    Reply
    1. Kenny Foster

      I agree and yes, I have seen this in a number of public schools.

      Reply
    1. Bryan Lee

      I read Carson’s book and both learned and enjoyed it. I gave it as a present to several young boys I know who will be successful in the future. The book will help them.

      Reply
  12. Darryl Sitterly

    The failure of our political leaders to think big was one of the reasons we pulled out of Vietnam and out of Iraq. Their failure resulted in more death and destruction and ultimately the personal moral decay of American political leadership.

    Reply
  13. Andrew Dooley

    President Trump once said that “you have to think anyway, so think big.” He is right about that and so we should pay attention to all successful senior leaders who repeatedly tell us the same thing. THINK BIG.

    Reply
  14. Danny Burkholder

    This makes the difference between good leaders and poor leaders.

    Reply
    1. Mr. T.J. Asper

      There are tactical leaders and strategic leaders. Each has their place. But I see what you mean when either of them doesn’t think big in the scheme of their purview.

      Reply
  15. Drew Dill

    When I got out of High School, I went to work in a shoe factory. These don’t exist anymore in the U.S.; much cheaper just to import them. But it was how the workers were treated that’s my point. We all were told to do our sewing job, or cutting, or whatever and to never think we would ever do anything important. Just do your job! Think small could have been their motto and one of the reasons the U.S. doesn’t have anymore shoe factories.

    Reply
  16. Martin Shiell

    Good story about the San Francisco earthquake. Similar in many ways to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Just because these events were a long time ago does not mean we cannot learn from them. In every case, thinking big is what helped get the people through each disaster.

    Reply
  17. Max Foster

    Army Captain, you always beat me to be the first to post a comment. Thanks and you’re right. Some organizations with great people teach you how to think big. Others teach you to think small and to never do it big.

    Reply
  18. Army Captain

    One advantage of the US military is that they teach you to think big, take big responsibilities, and do big things.

    Reply
    1. Joey Holmes

      I hope to join the Australian Army some day and learn this too. Cheers!

      Reply

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