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The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. Animportant attribute in successful people is their impatience with negativethinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates willchange. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want youto stay where they are. Friends that don't help you climb will want you tocrawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those thatdon't increase you will eventually decrease you. Consider this: Never receive counsel from unproductive people. Never discuss your problemswith someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those whonever succeed themselves are always first to tell you how. Not everyone hasa right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of thebargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person. Don't follow anyonewho's not going anywhere. With some people you spend an evening: with others you invest it. Be carefulwhere you stop to inquire for directions along the road of life. Wise is theperson who fortifies his life with the right friendships. If you run withwolves, you will learn how to howl. But, if you associate with eagles, youwill learn how to soar to great heights." A mirror reflects a man's face, but what he is really like is shown by thekind of friends he chooses." The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom youclosely associate - for the good and the bad. Note: Be not mistaken. This is applicable to family as well as friends. Yes..do love, appreciate and be thankful for your family, for they willalways be your family no matter what. Just know that they are human firstand though they are family to you, they may be a friend to someone else andwill fit somewhere in the criteria above." In Prosperity Our Friends Know Us. In Adversity We Know Our friends."" Never make someone a priority when you are only an option for them."" 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.". .Colin Powell
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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.Colin Powell
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The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you 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.Colin Powell
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Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.Colin Powell
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You don't know what you can get away with until you try.Colin Powell
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Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.Colin Powell
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Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.Colin Powell
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There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.Colin Powell
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Perpetual Optimism is a Force Multiplier.Colin Powell
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Always focus on the front windshield and not the review mirror.Colin Powell
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Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.Colin Powell
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The freedom to do your best means nothing unless you are willing to do your best.Colin Powell
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I'm not perfect but I'll be the creator of perfection.Colin Powell
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I was taught to think about mission and people. Mission. What are you trying to accomplish? Don't do anything until you know what the mission is. Drilled into our hearts and into our heads.Colin Powell
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Hope is not a strategyColin Powell
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Don't let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn't go with it.Colin Powell
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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.Colin Powell
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I think whether you're having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.Colin Powell
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Today I can declare my hope and declare it from the bottom of my heart that we will eventually see the time when that number of nuclear weapons is down to zero and the world is a much better place.Colin Powell
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I respect the fact that many denominations have different points of view with respect to gay marriage and they can hold that in the sanctity in the place of their religion and not bless them or solemnize them.Colin Powell
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A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.Colin Powell
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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.Colin Powell
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Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.Colin Powell
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Bad news isn't wine. It doesn't improve with age.Colin Powell
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It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.Colin Powell
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Fit no stereotypes. Don't chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team's mission.Colin Powell
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I don't think we handled the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad as well as we might have. But that's now history.Colin Powell
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90 percent of my time is spent on 10 percent of the world.Colin Powell
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The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced - the just demands of peace and security will be met - or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.Colin Powell
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Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.Colin Powell
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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.Colin Powell
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Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.Colin Powell
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In terms of the legal matter of creating a contract between two people that's called marriage, and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country.Colin Powell
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We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us.Colin Powell
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When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you've got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I'm not sure any country, either the United States or I don't hear of anyone else, who's willing to take on that responsibility.Colin Powell
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Get mad, then get over it.Colin Powell
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It isn't enough just to scream at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. We need our political system to start reflect this anger back into, 'How do we fix it? How do we get the economy going again?'Colin Powell
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What you're seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they're directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society.Colin Powell