13 Quotes by Ruth Simmons

When ownership is local and national, and various stakeholders work together, program innovations have a greater chance to take root and survive.

It’s very important in a leadership role not to place your ego at the foreground and not to judge everything in relationship to how your ego is fed.

There’s nothing worse than a leader who lacks ambition.

Fear of failure is the fuel of achievement. If you weren’t afraid to fail, you probably wouldn’t be highly motivated to work at the level that most of us have to work at to do well.

If you are the kind of person who listens to conservative advice, you may do okay in life, but you probably won’t ever be a fantastic leader. You have to take risks, and you also have to go against conventional wisdom, because conventional wisdom doesn’t make for startling advances in society.

I came to understand the value of education, not just to enable me to make a good living, but to enable me to make a worthwhile life.

Probably the first time I was a boss was when I was associate dean of the graduate school at the University of Southern California. I was in my early 30s.

I was intent on doing something productive and on being everything my parents taught me to be. Their values were clear: do good work; don’t ever get too big for your breeches; always be an authentic person; don’t worry too much about being famous and rich because that doesn’t amount to too much.

I’m the youngest of 12 children. And although I was the youngest, I tried to organize things in my family. When there were disputes, I tried to mediate.