Maybe we don’t put our young people in situations often enough where they’re allowed to fail. When you fail you gain experience, and with enough experience, you don’t fail as often.
COLIN POWELLThe commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.
More Colin Powell Quotes
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An organization that is not facing up to people who are not getting the job done, is going to have difficulties.
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I 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.
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I want to see policies that encourage every American to vote, not make it more difficult to vote.
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I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.
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The freedom to do your best means nothing unless you are willing to do your best.
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If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.
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The essence of leadership is building bonds of trust in your organization.
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You can be sure that the American spirit will prevail over this tragedy.
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Preferring members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake. This the Constitution forbids.
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There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
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The 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.
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Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
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Have a sense of humor to break the tension in times of great toil.
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Failure is a part of life and you have to learn to deal with it. Failure is something that is part of life’s cycle and it’s from failure that you gain life experience.
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Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
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Experts often possess more data than judgment.
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If everybody trusts one another, then the person who didn’t prevail will faithfully execute the decision as if it was their idea.
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The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.
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Look for intelligence and judgment and, most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego and the drive to get things done.
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It is good if your enemy underestimates you. The dumber they think you are the more surprised they are when you kill them.
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The best way to create a winning team is to train them, give them everything they need to get the job done and second, make sure they know what the job is and what the job will be. So you connect strategy to resources.
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You know you’re a good leader when people follow you out of curiosity.
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We can seldom get our children to do what we tell them, but they almost never fail to imitate us.
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Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
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In 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’.
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Get mad, then get over it.
COLIN POWELL