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Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.

Colin Powell

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.
COLIN POWELL

Constitution Discrimination Origin Reason
My own experience is that you get as much information as you can and then you pay attention to your intuition, to your informed instinct.
COLIN POWELL

Attention Experience Information Intuition Pay Yourself
Don’t just count your days, make your days count.
COLIN POWELL

Count Days Yourself
You can’t make someone else’s choices. You shouldn’t let someone else make yours.
COLIN POWELL

Choice Control Yourself
The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do. You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow.
COLIN POWELL

Follow Forever Important Learning Personal Soldier
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.
COLIN POWELL

Balance Criticism Drive Ego Intelligence Judgement Loyalty
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.
COLIN POWELL

Action Condition Destiny Energy Fulfillment Health Organism
There is no such thing as an unimportant person in an organization.
COLIN POWELL

Important Organization Person Value Worth
As a leader you set the tone for your entire team. Communicate your vision.
COLIN POWELL

Communication Leadership Team Vision Yourself
Have a sense of humor to break the tension in times of great toil.
COLIN POWELL

Break Greatness Hard Time Tension Time
Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
COLIN POWELL

People Responsibility
All values are important, everyone who has ever touched my life in some way was a mentor for good or bad. Life is a blend, and a person is a blend of all the influences that have touched their lives.
COLIN POWELL

Important Influence Life Live Touch Value
Be careful what you choose: You may get it.
COLIN POWELL

Care Choice Yourself
First you train the followers to accomplish the mission. Second, you resource them: Make sure that they have the tools to do the job. Third, you reward them: You give them medals or bonuses.
COLIN POWELL

Accomplishment Follow Job Medal Reward Tools Training Yourself
Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.
COLIN POWELL

Hard Work People Play Serious Work
Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience.
COLIN POWELL

Born Errors Experience Leadership Learning
You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.
COLIN POWELL

Ability Let Go Try Yourself
If everybody trusts one another, then the person who didn’t prevail will faithfully execute the decision as if it was their idea.
COLIN POWELL

Decision Execution Faith Ideas Oneself Person Trust
Always show more kindness than seems necessary, because the person receiving it needs it more than you will ever know.
COLIN POWELL

Kindness Necessary Need Yourself
Don’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 POWELL

Blood Death Expert Judgement Reality World
Always do your best. Somebody is watching you.
COLIN POWELL

Best Watch Yourself
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.
COLIN POWELL

Capability Intention Myself Presentation Regret Weapon Wrong
An organization that is not facing up to people who are not getting the job done, is going to have difficulties.
COLIN POWELL

Difficult Face Organization People
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.
COLIN POWELL

Best Connection Creation Job Resources Team Training Way Yourself
What could be more important than equipping the next generation with the character and competence they need to become successful
COLIN POWELL

Generation Important Need Success
A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.
COLIN POWELL

Determination Dreams Hard Work Magic Reality Sweat
When you wrestle with a pig, he has fun, and you just end up dirty.
COLIN POWELL

Animal Dirty End Fight Yourself

Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.

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Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.

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