You don’t know what you can get away with until you try
Colin Powell in his ROTC uniform at City College of New York in 1954. Powell “found his calling when he joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.” He graduated at the top of his class with the rank of cadet colonel, the highest rank in the training corps.
Colin Powell spoke Yiddish. He picked it up as a kid in the South Bronx.
There were lots of Jewish families in his neighborhood, and Colin worked as a Shabbos goy, a kind of assistant employed by Jewish families who need help with tasks they can’t perform on the Sabbath.
Sidenote: Colin Powell isn't the only great American with 'Shabbos goy' on his resume. Others include Martin Scorsese, Elvis Presley, and Harry Truman. Barack Obama too, who helped his Jewish office neighbor when he was an IL state senator. After high school, he was an average student at City College of New York. Colin studied geology and earned mostly C’s.
He didn’t graduate with academic honors, but he thrived as an emerging leader in ROTC, where he graduated at the top of his class.
“It was only once I was in college, about six months into college when I found something that I liked, and that was ROTC, Reserve Officer Training Corps in the military. And I not only liked it, but I was pretty good at it. That's what you really have to look for in life, something that you like, and something that you think you're pretty good at. And if you can put those two things together, then you're on the right track, and just drive on.” - Colin Powell
After graduating in 1958, Colin started his military career as a second lieutenant in the newly desegregated US Army. When he went to training in Georgia, he couldn’t get into any bars or restaurants.
The army may have been desegregated, but the state of Georgia wasn’t.
As a young officer serving in South Korea, Colin grew close to General Henry “Gunfighter” Emerson, one of the most caring officers Colin ever knew. Emerson made his soldiers repeatedly watch the movie Brian’s Song to engender racial harmony.
The rest is history.
Colin went on to become a 4-star general. Advisor to presidents. Statesman. Diplomat. Secretary of State.
Colin Powell knew a thing or two about leadership. And here are 18 lessons from a slide deck he often used when speaking.
Lesson #1: Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
Lesson #2: The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Lesson #3: 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.
Lesson #4: Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.
Lesson #5: Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.
Lesson #6: You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.
Lesson #7: Keep looking below surface appearances. Don’t shrink from doing so (just) because you might not like what you find.
Lesson #8: Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.
Lesson #9: Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
Lesson #10: Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.
Lesson #11: Fit no stereotypes. Don’t chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team’s mission.
Lesson #12: Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
Lesson #13: Powell’s Rules for Picking People: 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.
Lesson #14: Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.
Lesson #15:
Part I: Use the formula P=40 to 70, in which P stands for the probability of success and the numbers indicate the percentage of information acquired.
Part II: Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut.
Lesson #16: The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.
Lesson #17: 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. Corollary: surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.
Lesson #18: Command is lonely.
Colin Powell was a black Yiddish-speaking geologist born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrants with African and Scottish roots. A C-student who became a professional soldier in a newly desegregated Army in a still segregated country, but who nevertheless earned promotion after promotion and eventually became a general in 1989.
In 2001, he became the 65th US Secretary of State.
What a great American life.
You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.
