Let your family, staff, and friends know that you're still the same person, despite all the publicity and notoriety that accompanies your position.

If the staff lacks policy guidance against which to test decisions, their decisions will be random.

When cutting staff at the Pentagon, don't eliminate the thin layer that assures civilian control.

Success tends to go not to the person who is error-free, because he also tends to be risk-averse. Rather it goes to the person who recognizes that life is pretty much a percentage business. It isn't making mistakes that's critical; it's correcting them and getting on with the principal task.

Reduce the layers of management. They put distance between the top of an organization and the customers.

Know that the amount of criticism you receive may correlate somewhat to the amount of publicity you receive.

You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe. If you look at the entire NATO Europe today, the center of gravity is shifting to the east. And there are a lot of new members. And if you just take the list of all the members of NATO and all of those who have been invited in recently -- what is it? Twenty-six, something like that? -- you're right. Germany has been a problem, and France has been a problem.