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Leadership Quote by Bill Richardson

"I choose bold. I choose action. I choose what's right for the people. I choose to make a difference"

About this Quote

A politician doesn’t repeat “I choose” four times because they’re short on verbs. They do it because choice is the cleanest substitute for proof. Bill Richardson’s mantra builds a candidate persona out of pure agency: boldness, action, righteousness, difference. Each word is a campaign-season vitamin, the kind that promises energy without listing ingredients. The anaphora (that drumbeat of “I choose”) is doing the heavy lifting, turning leadership into a series of decisive pivots - as if governing were simply a matter of picking the correct door and walking through it.

The subtext is defensive in a familiar way. “Bold” and “action” quietly answer the charge that public service is slow, compromised, bureaucratic - all the things voters already suspect. By framing leadership as personal selection, Richardson also sidesteps the messy truth of politics: you don’t “choose” alone. You negotiate. You trade. You count votes. The line aims to make collective constraint feel like individual willpower.

Then there’s the phrase that reveals the target audience: “what’s right for the people.” It’s populist without being ideological; “the people” is a flattering blank check that lets every listener imagine their own priorities endorsed. “Make a difference” seals the pitch with moral aspiration instead of policy specificity, a classic move in retail politics where affect must arrive before details can.

In context, Richardson’s career - diplomat, governor, energy secretary - was built on deal-making across factions. The quote tries to translate that transactional skill into a story of principled decisiveness: not just a negotiator, but a chooser. That’s the intent: convert complexity into clarity, and ambition into virtue.

Quote Details

TopicServant Leadership
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Richardson, Bill. (2026, January 17). I choose bold. I choose action. I choose what's right for the people. I choose to make a difference. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-choose-bold-i-choose-action-i-choose-whats-48835/

Chicago Style
Richardson, Bill. "I choose bold. I choose action. I choose what's right for the people. I choose to make a difference." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-choose-bold-i-choose-action-i-choose-whats-48835/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I choose bold. I choose action. I choose what's right for the people. I choose to make a difference." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-choose-bold-i-choose-action-i-choose-whats-48835/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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I choose bold, action, what is right, and to make a difference - Bill Richardson
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About the Author

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Bill Richardson (born November 15, 1947) is a Politician from USA.

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