"The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are"
About this Quote
Progress starts not with a detailed plan but with a decision, a quiet moment when someone refuses to be defined by the present. The line draws a boundary between comfort and movement, naming the first victory as internal. Before maps, timetables, or strategies, there is a refusal: I will not stay here. That posture breaks the gravitational pull of habit, fear, and the status quo, and it reframes uncertainty from a threat into an invitation.
The irony is that the decision is negative in form but generative in effect. Saying no to stagnation creates space for a better yes. Psychologists call it overcoming status quo bias; leaders call it vision. Either way, the pivot is the same: choosing movement over drift. The language of somewhere matters, too. It does not promise a specific destination or a guaranteed path. It honors the fact that clarity often follows commitment. Only after the decision do options multiply and resources become visible.
Chauncey Depew knew something about movement. A Gilded Age lawyer, railroad executive, and U.S. Senator, he spent his career during an era when America was knitting itself together on steel rails. He was also one of the era’s best-known after-dinner speakers, offering crisp insights dressed as witticisms. Coming from a man who helped oversee networks that literally moved people and goods, the line resonates as both metaphor and biography. It captures the optimism of a country intoxicated with mobility and the belief that initiative could redraw a life.
The sentiment scales from the personal to the civic. A person leaves a job that has dulled them, a town organizes for cleaner water, a nation confronts entrenched injustice. None of those journeys begin with perfect plans. They begin with a choice born of clarity and discontent. Decide not to stay, and the horizon shifts. The first step is not a step at all, but a stance. From there, the path appears.
The irony is that the decision is negative in form but generative in effect. Saying no to stagnation creates space for a better yes. Psychologists call it overcoming status quo bias; leaders call it vision. Either way, the pivot is the same: choosing movement over drift. The language of somewhere matters, too. It does not promise a specific destination or a guaranteed path. It honors the fact that clarity often follows commitment. Only after the decision do options multiply and resources become visible.
Chauncey Depew knew something about movement. A Gilded Age lawyer, railroad executive, and U.S. Senator, he spent his career during an era when America was knitting itself together on steel rails. He was also one of the era’s best-known after-dinner speakers, offering crisp insights dressed as witticisms. Coming from a man who helped oversee networks that literally moved people and goods, the line resonates as both metaphor and biography. It captures the optimism of a country intoxicated with mobility and the belief that initiative could redraw a life.
The sentiment scales from the personal to the civic. A person leaves a job that has dulled them, a town organizes for cleaner water, a nation confronts entrenched injustice. None of those journeys begin with perfect plans. They begin with a choice born of clarity and discontent. Decide not to stay, and the horizon shifts. The first step is not a step at all, but a stance. From there, the path appears.
Quote Details
| Topic | New Beginnings |
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