General Colin Powell had a 13-point rulebook for life.
He showed them to me when we spent the day together a few years ago at the National War College in Washington DC, and they made a huge impression - mainly because I agreed with every single one of them.
They're worth repeating again in full today as America mourns the loss – tragically, from complications due to Covid-19 - of perhaps the greatest president it never had:
1. It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
2. Get mad, then get over it.
3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that, when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
4. It can be done!
5. Be careful what you choose, you may get it.
6. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
7. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours.
8. Check small things.
9. Share credit.
10. Remain calm. Be kind.
11. Have a vision. Be demanding.
12. Don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
Powell's rules resonated so strongly with me because they sounded so real.
This wasn't the robotic soundbite claptrap of a dreary career politician.
This was hard-earned real-world advice from a man who'd fought his way from the bottom to the very top of society, and who'd had to fight for everything that he achieved.
General Colin Powell had a 13-point rulebook for life. He showed them to me when we spent the day together a few years ago at the National War College in Washington DC, and they made a huge impression - mainly because I agreed with every single one of them. Pictured: Powell served as secretary of State under President George W. Bush from 2001-2005
Powell started work selling baby furniture while still at school, then embarked on a stunning military and political career that saw him become a Vietnam veteran, a former National Security Adviser to President Reagan, a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents George H. Bush and Bill Clinton, and the first Black US Secretary of State under President George W. Bush. Pictured: A young Powell showed on left and on right the most recent image of Powell on September 11, 2021 coming off the stage at the Kennedy Center after speaking at a 9/11 Commemoration concert featuring the National Symphony Orchestra and the United States Marine Band
Colin Powell never wanted to be president, though many - including me – think he would have been a brilliant occupant of the White House. 'I never woke up a single morning thinking it was the right thing for me,' he explained. 'I've served my country in other ways.' It was said that one of the reasons he decided against it was opposition to the idea from his devoted wife Alma – mother of his three children. Pictured: Powell in Washington DC where he was worked as a White House Fellow in 1972 and 1973
This was the mantra of a man who started work selling baby furniture while still at school, then embarked on a stunning military and political career that saw him become a Vietnam veteran, a former National Security Adviser to President Reagan, a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents George H. Bush and Bill Clinton, and the first Black US Secretary of State under President George W. Bush.
Indeed, such was the respect in which he was held by successive presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom TWICE.
He deserved it.
Powell was the living, breathing embodiment of Rocky Balboa's famous movie speech to his son about life not being about how hard you can hit, but about how many times you can get hit and still keep picking yourself up again and keep moving forward.
Sylvester Stallone didn't write that motivational masterpiece with Colin Powell in mind, but nobody better personified the ethos of it better than he did.
There have been many fulsome tributes to him since after the news of his death broke, attesting to his integrity, selfless public service, heroism – he was wounded in Vietnam - and devotion to his family.
But during my time with him, I saw at first hand the other qualities that made Powell a very special person.
He was funny and self-deprecating, honest and candid, fiercely intelligent and refreshingly devoid of meaningless political jargon.
He was also incredibly likeable and charming, with old school manners and a civility so lacking in modern political discourse.
Powell also exuded an inherent strength of character and a fiercely held moral code that ran through him like a rod of reinforced steel.
But the most striking thing about him was that he made it out of the toughest meanest streets of New York's Harlem and the south Bronx in the 60s to become one of America's greatest ever public figures, and never wallowed in modern day woke self-pity along the way.
Powell WAS the American dream - and he was fiercely proud of that.
In his autobiography, he revealed: 'I was born in Harlem to immigrant parents, and my parents always had a job. I don't think either one of them made more than $50 or $60 a week, but we were able to get along on that back then.'
The most striking thing about Powell was that he made it out of the toughest meanest streets of New York's Harlem and the south Bronx in the 60s to become one of America's greatest ever public figures, and never wallowed in modern day woke self-pity along the way. Powell WAS the American dream - and he was fiercely proud of that. Pictured: Powell (second right) poses with his wife Alma (right) and three children – Linda, Michael and Annemarie – at the White House after being appointed as National Security Advisor to Ronald Reagan in 1987
Powell is survived by his wife Alma (pictured) and three children – Michael, Linda and Annemarie. They were married for 59 years after meeting on a blind date. Powell recounted that night to me in vivid loving detail: 'A friend of mine insisted I go with him on this blind date. He was interested in this young lady, and the young lady had a roommate, and he asked me to go with him to pick off with the roommate. And the roommate was being told the same thing by her roommate and she didn't like it and didn't think her parents would approve of her dating some infantry lieutenant. But when I walked in, she was very attractive, and she apparently did not reject me outright'
When I asked him about that early life, he expanded: 'I was raised in an extended immigrant family, Jamaican with a British background. They were British subjects when they came here (to America). What they cared about was meeting the expectations they had for us to get an education, got out of the house, and get a job. That was it. You could be a doctor, lawyer, or streetcar conductor. I have cousins of mine who are subway conductors in London. And it didn't make any difference what you actually became. It was just important that you became something and that you never embarrassed the family and that you met our expectations. Our expectations are: you will do better than we did, you will get a job, and you will make us proud in your work.'
Driven by this ferociously ambitious work ethic, Powell was a man who always put his country first, and certainly over any party allegiances.
To him, what mattered most was loyalty to the United States of America, and he had no time for partisan bullsh*t that creates division not unity.
Powell was a long-time Republican who then endorsed a Democrat, Barack Obama, to be President.
It earned him a lot of praise, and a lot of abuse.
But he never regretted doing what he thought was right.
'I always tried to do the best job of analyzing the needs of the country and the candidates that are before us,' he told me, 'and trying to support the candidate who I feel will do the best for the country, whether he or she is a Democrat or Republican.'
Powell identified a massive problem that is even more serious today - the woefully intransigent and destructive nature of partisan tribal politics.
'What troubles me the most is that I've never seen such polarization in our political process,' he said. 'I've never seen a situation where you have people on the far left
