The greatest gifts my parents gave to me were their unconditional love and a set of values.
COLIN POWELLThe greatest gifts my parents gave to me were their unconditional love and a set of values.
COLIN POWELLEvery organization should tolerate rebels who tell the emperor he has no clothes.
COLIN POWELLDon’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
COLIN POWELLAlways be looking for that which you do well and that which you love doing, and when you find those two things together — man, you got it.
COLIN POWELLIn other words, don’t expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say ‘we have a problem, let’s go and get it’.
COLIN POWELLDon’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.
COLIN POWELLIf you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
COLIN POWELLYou should never be so involved with your position/job that when the position is gone your entire self image is gone with it.
COLIN POWELLI have never seen a good organization where the standards weren’t high.
COLIN POWELLYou don’t know what you can get away with until you try.
COLIN POWELLThere is no such thing as an unimportant person in an organization.
COLIN POWELLThe chief condition on which, life, health and vigor depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny.
COLIN POWELLI regret that the presentation I made at the UN turned out to be wrong. It was wrong on the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, but pretty much right on intentions and capabilities.
COLIN POWELLIf a leader doesn’t convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they’ll start to fall down and get depressed.
COLIN POWELLGive me the right people and I don’t much care what organization you give me. Good things will happen. Give me the wrong people and it doesn’t matter what you do with the organization. Bad things will happen.
COLIN POWELLPreferring members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake. This the Constitution forbids.
COLIN POWELL