Collin Powells Leadership Lesssons

I added a few thoughts to some of Collin Powells stirring and inspiring leadership lessons.


General Colin Powell: Lessons from a very successful leader

Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.

Take George W Bush. He’s responsible for the War in Iraq and his approval ratings are at an all time low. That is a lot of pissed off people.



Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites.

When weapons inspectors who have been searching for months, tell you Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction. Don’t believe them. They probably just aren’t doing their job.



Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted, the leader must be doubly vigilant.

When Bush was told a plane had hit the World Trade Centre he didn’t get distracted. He still managed to finish the story about the goat for the children in the Florida classroom.



Keep looking below surface appearances. Don’t shrink from doing so (just) because you might not like what you find.

If the weapons inspectors cant find the weapons of mass destruction and the intelligence agencies in other countries say there aren’t any. And you own people say there aren’t any. Don’t listen. Keep believing.



Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.

When the guy you send to find evidence that Iraq bought Yellow cake in Nigeria for Nukes cant find any evidence. Discredit him and leak to the press that his wife works for the CIA. That’ll show him.


Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.

BUT, if you have to go to the UN and convince them Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, take some cool drawings of trucks that are mobile weapons labs.



Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

You get into Iraq but you can’t find those weapons of mass destruction? Get more forces to look for them. They’ll turn up.


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.

Or hire the people that used to work for your dad.


(Borrowed by Powell from Michael Korda): "Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.

Saudi Terrorists attacked the Twin Towers. America needs to invade Iraq.



The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proven otherwise.

Unless the rear echelon is Donald Rumsfeld and the commanders are invading Iraq in which case he calls the shots and says how many men will be needed to get the job done.



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

George Bush has one of the highest records of holidays of any US President ever. Before 911 he had been at his Ranch in Texas for a month.

Baaaaaaaa. The war in Iraq was about oil. Baaaaaaa. What are you gonna Baaaaaaaa,

I’ve been watching films on U tube about the war in Iraq and they all beat the same drum. We were lied to. There were no WMD. The war was about oil. Saddam had no links to Bin Laden. The invasion was already being planned before 911.
A lot of people knew this before the invasion and now the truth is seeping down to the masses. Most of these films pull out experts. Ex CIA, Army, Government people to help prove the point.
But so what.
You think the men who planned the invasion. The men who wanted to get Saddam out of power and their hands on Iraq’s oil and care. Why should they.
You see what the men in power count on is the fact that we, the masses, are sheep. Especially in the West. We plod along in a flock. Most of us under the illusion that because we live in a democracy. That we, the people, are in control and because we ‘elected’ our leaders they will safe guard our interests and do the right thing by us.
Meanwhile, the men in power. And I’m not talking about the muppet out front who got the job from daddy. I’m talking about the men with the real power. The men off to the side. They just quietly go about doing what they want.
Want to kick out Saddam, get control of the oil and get Iraq to start selling oil in US dollars again. No problem. Tell the sheep Saddam is linked to 911 and has WMD. Sure the truth will come out eventually, but it will be too late by then. And it is. The job is done. When Bush was on that aircraft carrier in front of the sign ‘Mission Accomplished’. It was right. The mission was accomplished. The war hasn’t been won. But that wasn’t the object. As long as the war goes on there are plenty of men making loads of money. Ask the team at Halliburton. And as for the oil. They don’t need to start pumping it right now. They are too busy making loads of money off the oil they are pulling out of the ground everywhere else. Plenty of time before they need to start sucking Iraq dry.
And why can people like Bush Blair and Howard lie to the people that supposedly put them in power? Because they and their handlers know they wont be held accountable. Sure there will be a lot of films and protests by some of the angry sheep, but we’ll all get tired and go back to chewing grass. Politically we might se a few heads role, but hat doesn’t worry the men in power. There are plenty more Bill Clintons and George W Bushes to wheel out in front of the flock to provide the illusion that we have a choice of leaders and that the power is in our hands.
How did this happen? Surely we can blame someone for the travesty. It can’t be our own apathetic selves at fault. What about the greeney peace freeks? Why didn’t they try to persuade us a little harder? Why did they have to look so green and freaky and not very credible.
What about the political opposition? Surely they should have sniffed out what was going on. Isn’t that what the opposition do? Don’t tell me they're just waiting to have a turn in the drivers seat and serving the purpose of the men in power by making it look like we, the sheep, have an alternative choice in leaders. What about the press? Shouldn’t they have searched out the truth. Don’t tell me they're in the pockets of the men in power. (Or in the case of the embedded journalists, in the tanks and personnel carriers of the men in power).
So what do we do now?
Maybe if we make a real effort to hold the people in power that lied to us, accountable, we could send a message to our leaders that they can’t get away with bull shitting the flock. That there will be a price to pay. But that wont happen will it. The men at the top rely on the ineptitude and apathy of the flock. People like you and me who are too busy chewing grass and hoping someone will trim our dags.
I guess we get the leaders we deserve. Baaaaaaaaa. Baaaaaa. Baaaaa.

The forgotten victims of 911

Remember the way the twin towers came down. Everyone commented on the fact that it looked just like one of those building demolition jobs. Maybe it was. That’s what films like Loose Change allude to. But if it wasn’t, and if two planes flew into the towers and a few hours later they came straight down, then how do all the guys in the building demolition business feel?
Like losers that’s how.
These guys charge big money convincing people that what they do is an art form. That you have to spend days calculating the exact amount of explosives and the exact place to put them to ensure the building will come straight down without damaging the surrounding property. But turns out it aint that hard. You just fly a plane into the side of a building and wait an hour or two and she’ll come down neat as you like. One plane per building is all you need. It’s quick, efficient and with the number of airlines going out of business these days I don’t think it would be that hard to get an old passenger jet for a bargain price. As if that wasn’t damaging enough to the egos of the men in the building demolition industry consider World Trade Centre Building 7. You might not have heard much about building 7. It was only about 48 stories high. But about 5.30pm September 11 she came down too. Again, straight down without damaging the US Post office that was right next door. Now this building wasn’t even hit by a plane. Sure some bits of the World Trade Centre fell on it and it caught fire on a few floors but this was only the 3rd steel framed building in the history of the world to collapse after a fire. The other two being World Trade Centre 1 & 2. Look up 911 building 7 on google; there is a very interesting film with footage that most of the news networks never played. But hey, this story isn’t about conspiracies. But if I was making another 911 conspiracy doco and needed funding I would ring building demolition companies and ask them to stump up the cash, cause if anyone is going to be happy to prove that the World Trade Centre buildings we bought down by explosives it’s them.

When the bombs go up bums, the terrorists win.

After 911 you couldn’t take box cutters on planes. The metal knives on the in-flight meals were replaced with plastic ones but strangely the airlines decided that forks would never be a weapon of choice for terrorists. If an Arab gentlemen in his 30’s tried to board a plane with a few balls of yarn and a half finished crew neck jumper confiscate his knitting needles by all means, but was a general ban on an item mainly carried by little old ladies necessary? Things got annoying when the guy with the bad facial hair tried to blow up his sneakers on a flight from Paris. Suddenly we all had to start taking our shoes off. And then last year the alleged uncovering of a plot to make a bomb on board a plane by mixing liquids meant we couldn’t take moisturisers, water or liquid of any kind through security. Thing is all this security is really about the airlines making the travelers feel safe. As if any terrorist is going to waste his time trying to put a bomb in a shoe or carry liquids on board now it is common knowledge. No. Mr terrorist is too smart for that. He’ll be planning something the authorities haven’t thought to look for yet. And that’s what scares me. How many ways are there left to smuggle dangerous stuff on board a plane. I can only think of one. Up the bum. Can you imagine if the authorities uncover a plot by terrorists to smuggle bombs on board hidden in condoms in their bowels? Drug mules do it with coke, so why not? And as we know from the liquids scare, it doesn’t even actually have to happen to set the authorities off. They just need to get a rumour of bum bomb technology to set them off. Overnight the way we feel about air travel will change. Some smart airports will no doubt try and put a positive spin on the new security measures. For instance they could tie in a complimentary prostate check for men but the only people who will be laughing are the terrorists and the people who make rubber gloves.