It Worked For Me Read online

  IT WORKED

  FOR ME

  In Life and Leadership

  COLIN

  POWELL

  WITH TONY KOLTZ

  Dedication

  TO

  JEFFREY, BRYAN, ABBY, AND PJ

  OUR FUTURE

  Author’s Note

  I love stories. In the course of my career, I gathered a number of them that mean a lot to me. Most come from my military life. I was in the military from age seventeen, as an ROTC cadet, until I was a retired GI at age fifty-six. Others came from my service as Secretary of State or National Security Advisor. Yet others came to me as I just wandered through life. In this book I want to share with you a selection of these stories and experiences that have stayed with me over the years; each one of them taught me something important about life and leadership. I offer them to you for whatever use you may wish to make of them.

  Part I explains my “Thirteen Rules,” which have been bouncing around since they were first published in Parade magazine over twenty years ago. Part II focuses on the importance of really knowing who you are and how to always be yourself. The emphasis in Part III is on knowing and taking care of others, especially those who are your followers. Part IV captures my experience in the exploding digital realm that has reshaped the world and our lives. Part V deals with how to be a great manager and a great leader. Part VI, “Reflections,” describes serious and amusing aspects of my life. The afterword summarizes what the whole book is about—people in all their glorious, loving, and frustrating forms.

  As you will see, there are no conclusions or recommendations, just my observations. The chapters are freestanding. You can read them straight through or jump in anywhere. Everyone has life lessons and stories. These are mine. All I can say is that they worked for me.

  —Colin Powell

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  PART I: THE RULES

  1 My Thirteen Rules

  PART II: KNOW YOURSELF, BE YOURSELF

  2 Always Do Your Best, Someone Is Watching

  3 The Street Sweeper

  4 Busy Bastards

  5 Kindness Works

  6 I’m All Caught Up

  7 Where on the Battlefield?

  8 Spheres and Pyramids

  9 Potential, Not Just Performance

  PART III: TAKE CARE OF THE TROOPS

  10 Trust Your People

  11 Mutual Respect

  12 We’re Mammals

  13 Never Walk Past a Mistake

  14 The Guys in the Field Are Right and the Staff Is Wrong

  15 It Takes All Kinds

  PART IV: FAST TIMES IN THE DIGITAL WORLD

  16 Brainware

  17 Tell Me What You Know

  18 Tell Me Early

  19 Beware First Reports

  20 Five Audiences

  PART V: GETTING TO 150 PERCENT

  21 What I Tell My New Aides

  22 One Team, One Fight

  23 Compete to Win

  24 Swagger Sticks

  25 They’ll Bitch About the Brand

  26 After Thirty Days, You Own the Sheets

  27 Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

  28 Squirrels

  29 Meetings

  30 The Indispensable Person

  31 Time to Get off the Train

  32 Be Gone

  PART VI: REFLECTIONS

  33 The Powell Doctrine

  34 The Pottery Barn Rule

  35 February 5, 2003: The United Nations

  36 Parsley Island

  37 Pizza and Milk

  38 Cousin Di

  39 Speaking Is My Business

  40 On the Road

  41 Gifts

  42 Best and Worst

  43 Hot Dogs

  44 The Gift of a Good Start

  Afterword: It’s All About People

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Credits

  Also by Colin Powell

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  PART I

  The Rules

  CHAPTER ONE

  My Thirteen Rules

  President George H. W. Bush was sworn in to succeed President Ronald Reagan on January 20, 1989. The moment he took the oath I ceased to be the National Security Advisor; the torch was passed to my longtime colleague and mentor, General Brent Scowcroft.

  After I left the White House, I returned to the Army. In April I was promoted to four-star general and given command of the Army’s Forces Command (FORSCOM), with headquarters at Fort McPherson, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. I had command of all the deployable Army forces in the United States, including the Army Reserve, and I supervised the training of the Army National Guard. I was the first black Army officer to have a four-star troop command.

  Shortly after I arrived at FORSCOM, Parade magazine, the long-running Sunday supplement with a readership of more than fifty million people, asked to do a cover story about me and my new assignment—one of those short personal articles aimed at Americans reading their Sunday newspapers over coffee. Since the story was written and the supplement printed many weeks before its August 13 distribution date, Parade had no way of knowing that the 13th would be just three days after I was announced by President Bush to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The article was so timely that I was not able to persuade everyone that its publication date was a coincidence.

  Its author, David Wallechinsky, a highly skilled journalist, needed a hook to close the piece. One of my secretaries, Sergeant Cammie Brown, urged him to ask me about the couple of dozen snippets of paper shoved under the glass cover on my desktop—quotes and aphorisms that I had collected or made up over the years. David called and asked if I would read off a few. The thirteen I read him appeared in a sidebar in the article.

  After they were first printed in Parade—to my great surprise—the Thirteen Rules caught on. Over the past twenty-three years, my assistants have given out hundreds of copies of that list in many different forms; they have been PowerPointed and flashed around the world on the Internet.

  Here are my rules and the reasons I have hung on to them.

  1. IT AIN’T AS BAD AS YOU THINK. IT WILL LOOK BETTER IN THE MORNING.

  Well, maybe it will, maybe it won’t. This rule reflects an attitude and not a prediction. I have always tried to keep my confidence and optimism up, no matter how difficult the situation. A good night’s rest and the passage of just eight hours will usually reduce the infection. Leaving the office at night with a winning attitude affects more than you alone; it also conveys that attitude to your followers. It strengthens their resolve to believe we can solve any problem.

  At the Infantry School, they drilled into us constantly that an infantry officer can do anything. “No challenge is too great for us, no difficulty we cannot overcome.” Think back to Churchill telling the world that Britain will “never, never, never give up.” Or more colloquially, “Don’t let the bastards get you down.”

  “Things will get better. You will make them get better.” We graduated believing that, and I continue to believe that, despite frequent evidence to the contrary.

  A variation of this theme was also drilled into us: “Lieutenant, you may be starving, but you must never show hunger; you always eat last. You may be freezing or near heat exhaustion, but you must never show that you are cold or hot. You may be terrified, but you must never show fear. You are the leader and the troops will reflect your emotions.” They must believe that no matter how bad things look, you can make them better.

  I love old movies and get from them lots of examples that I use for personal reinforcement.

  The classic movie The Hustler opens
with one of my all-time favorite scenes. It’s set in a New York pool hall. A young pool whiz, Eddie Felson, played by Paul Newman, has come to challenge the reigning master, Minnesota Fats, played by Jackie Gleason. Also present are the pool impresario, Bert Gordon, a Mephistophelean figure played by George C. Scott, and a handful of spectators.

  The match begins, and it is clear that Fast Eddie Felson is very good—maybe great. He proceeds to get the edge on Minnesota Fats, game after game, long into the evening. Fats starts to sweat. Others gather around to watch. Fast Eddie and his manager begin to smell triumph. The king is about to die; long live the new king. Fats, ready to give up, looks over to Bert for relief from the misery. Bert simply says, “Stay with this kid, he’s a loser.” Bert is a gambler and detects a weakness in Fast Eddie, an overconfidence that can be taken advantage of. Fats still seems stricken. He excuses himself and goes into the restroom. After washing his hands and face he comes out, seeming ready to leave. He signals to the attendant, and Fast Eddie smiles in victory, thinking Fats is asking for his coat. But no, Fats extends his hands for the attendant to apply talcum powder. Then, with a catlike smile he says, “Fast Eddie, let’s play some pool.” You know the rest—he crushes Eddie.

  Many times when facing a tough meeting, an unpleasant encounter, a hostile press conference, or a vicious congressional hearing, the last thing I would do beforehand was go into the restroom, wash and dry my hands and face, look into the mirror, and say softly to myself, “Fast Eddie, let’s play some pool.” I may be down, but never out. An infantry officer can do anything.

  Oh, full disclosure: Paul Newman is the star. At the end of the movie there is a rematch and he beats Fats. I never watch that scene.

  2. GET MAD, THEN GET OVER IT.

  Everyone gets mad. It is a natural and healthy emotion. You get mad at your kids, your spouse, your best friends, your opponents. My experience is that staying mad isn’t useful. That experience was tested by my colleague the French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin, who made me—and most Americans—mad, very mad.

  Dominique was a career diplomat, a graduate of the most prestigious French national academies, a noted historian, and a gifted poet, and he was very close to the then president of France, Jacques Chirac. With his flowing silvering hair and impeccable suits and ties, he cut quite a figure.

  In early 2003, the period leading up to the Second Gulf War, there were repeated debates on that issue in the United Nations Security Council. The presidency of the fifteen-member council rotates every month; France had the presidency in January, with Dominique in the chair. The French were strongly opposed to military action against Iraq and led the opposition to it. They were not alone in their opposition. Germany, Russia, and a number of other countries had joined them. It’s likely that more countries opposed us than supported us.

  Council presidents normally suggest a special topic of discussion during their tenure. The topic Dominique suggested for a meeting of the fifteen Security Council foreign ministers was terrorism.

  I was uneasy about this meeting. Would it stay on target? Most of my colleagues back in Washington thought the French would convert it into a session about Iraq—a bad idea; they wanted Iraq off the table at the UN. Dominique assured me, however, that it would stay focused on terrorism; there would be no discussion of Iraq. I accepted his assurances.

  The meeting turned out fine . . . until Dominique left the conference to speak to the large assembled press corps, where he attacked our position on Iraq and made it clear that France would oppose any movement toward military action. I was blindsided; the White House phones lit up. The TV evening news and the press the next day made my embarrassment complete. The press loved the story, but it made life very difficult for me in Washington and at the UN. I was livid and made that clear to Dominique. Meanwhile, the reaction around the country was outrage. Newspapers were calling for a boycott of French wine and for renaming French fries freedom fries. In a nutshell, Dominique had screwed things up for me.

  Dominique was in no way a bad man. He was reflecting the position of his government, he would remain the French foreign minister, and he came out looking like a hero to those who opposed us. For several months, Dominique would be my adversary on the Iraq issue, but I knew I could not treat him as an enemy.

  Despite the opposition at the UN and elsewhere, President George W. Bush decided on military action and we deposed Saddam Hussein.

  In the aftermath of the fall of Hussein, when we needed UN resolutions to restore order and rebuild Iraq, France supported us for six straight UN resolutions.

  In February 2004, a crisis in Haiti required us to encourage President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down from office and leave the country. As mobs approached his home, we were able to get President Aristide and his party to the airport and on a U.S. plane heading to South Africa, where he thought he would be welcomed. That was a mistake. South Africa refused to receive him at that time. In the middle of the night I called Dominique to ask him to persuade one of the Francophone African countries to accept Aristide before our plane ran out of gas. Half an hour later he called back with a solution, and our anxious pilot soon had clear instructions on where to deposit President Aristide. My colleague and friend had come to my rescue.

  We then sent a force in to stabilize Haiti until a UN force could be assembled, with a U.S. Marine general in charge. He had under his command a French infantry battalion. Dominique made that happen. These actions were in France’s interest, but he could have made our lives a lot harder if I had made him an eternal enemy rather than an ally and friend who was an occasionally annoying adversary. I often remind folks that France was with us during the American Revolution. We have been married to the French for more than 230 years . . . and in marriage counseling with them for more than 230 years; but the marriage is still intact thanks to our shared values and common belief in human rights, freedom, and democracy. The ties that bind us are stronger than the occasional stresses that separate us.

  Years ago, as a brigadier general stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, I worked for a great soldier, Lieutenant General Jack Merritt. I was in charge of evaluating how the Army should be organized and equipped in the future. General Merritt and I got along well, but one day he made a decision that I thought was shortsighted, unfair, and totally wrong. I asked to see him. When I went in and unloaded on him, he listened patiently with no visible emotion. After I finished my diatribe, he came over to me, put his hand on my shoulder, and quietly said, “Colin, the best part about being mad and disappointed is that you get over it. Now have a nice day.” He was right. I felt better after getting my anger out, and I did get over it.

  Jack Merritt was not the first to teach me this lesson. I originally learned it many years earlier in Germany as a young first lieutenant and company executive officer. One day I got into a screaming match on a phone with another officer and pretty much lost it. My commander, Captain William Louisell, observed my behavior. When I hung up, he said to me: “Don’t ever act that way in my presence or anyone’s presence again.” To make sure I’d learned the lesson he wrote in my efficiency report, “Young Powell has a severe temper, which he makes a mature effort to control.” He nailed me, but also gave me a life preserver. I’ve worked hard over the years to make sure that when I get mad, I get over it quickly and never lose control of myself. With a few lapses I won’t discuss here, I’ve done reasonably well.

  3. AVOID HAVING YOUR EGO SO CLOSE TO YOUR POSITION THAT WHEN YOUR POSITION FALLS, YOUR EGO GOES WITH IT.

  I got this one from a couple of lawyers. Back in 1978, working as a staff assistant to Secretary of Defense Harold Brown during the Carter administration, I had to referee a heated dispute over some obscure issue. I sat at the head of the table in Secretary Brown’s conference room filled with people and listened to two lawyers go at each other. They quickly got past the merits and demerits of the issue, but the debate continued, and for one of the lawyers it became increasingly personal. As he gre
w more and more agitated, he got himself tied up in arguments about how the outcome would affect him. I finally lost patience and stopped the debate. I’d heard enough. I decided the issue in favor of the other lawyer, based on the strength of his presentation and reasoning.

  The fellow who lost looked crushed, to the discomfort of everyone in the room. The other lawyer looked at him and said, “Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.” In short, accept that your position was faulty, not your ego.

  This doesn’t mean you don’t argue with passion and intensity. During Secretary Brown’s tenure, W. Graham Claytor was Deputy Secretary of Defense, and I was his military assistant. Graham was a crusty old Virginian, tough as nails, with high-level executive experience in government and the private sector. Before becoming deputy secretary, he had been Secretary of the Navy, and in private life he had been a distinguished lawyer, president of Southern Railway, and head of Amtrak. I’ve watched Graham go head to head with everyone in sight to advocate a position. If he lost the argument, he became a no less passionate advocate for what Secretary Brown had decided.