Colin Powell

Have fun in your command. Don’t always run at a breakneck pace. Take leave when you’ve earned it, spend time with your families.

Colin Powell

Hope is not a strategy.

Colin Powell

I have never seen a good organization where the standards weren’t high.

Colin Powell

I think leadership is both a trained thing and a natural gift.

Colin Powell

I think you can improve on that natural ability with training and exposure to great leaders of the past and to management theories.

Colin Powell

I’m not perfect but I’ll be the creator of perfection.

Colin Powell

If 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 Powell

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

If you are black, if you are Puerto Rican or Hispanic, be proud of that. But don’t let it become a problem. Let it become somebody else’s problem.

Colin Powell

If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.

Colin Powell