“It is better to be on hand with ten men than absent with ten thousand.”
— Timur the Lame
Attributed to Timur in historical chronicles about his military philosophy. He led from the front despite his crippled leg.
Arrows shattered my right leg and took two fingers near Sistan in 1363. I was twenty-seven. They called me the Lame and expected me to disappear. Instead I rode at the front of every charge for forty years. At Ankara I captured a sultan. At Delhi I broke an empire. Not because my armies were the largest. Because I was there. Whatever your fight is, do not command it from a distance. Be there.