Colin Luther Powell (Born April 5, 1937) is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army.

He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, the first African American to serve in that position.

Powell was a professional soldier for 35 years, holding a variety of command and staff positions and rising to the rank of General.

Colin Powell has spent much of his life inspiring many with his leadership skills and life experiences.

Read below the inspiring Quotes of Colin Powell.

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

Leadership is solving problems. 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 or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity.

Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

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

You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.

Giving back involves a certain amount of giving up.

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.

Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.

Never make someone a priority when you are only an option for them.

So like any football or basketball coach, you always always believe you’re going to win.

It takes more courage to send men into battle than to fight the battle yourself.

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.

The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate – for the good and the bad.

In Prosperity Our Friends Know Us. In Adversity We Know Our friends.

Always focus on the front windshield and not the review mirror.

There are no secrets to success: don’t waste time looking for them. Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty to those for whom you work, and persistence.

Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.

A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.

Colin Powell’s 13 Rules of Leadership

Colin Powell has written a valuable memoir. It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership is a collection of lessons learned and anecdotes drawn from his life. The book begins with his 13 Rules and why he has hung on to them over the years. Here they are with some of his thoughts on each: