Like a lot of high school students, he needed a summer job. It wasn't easy finding one, but Colin did what he could. When there was an opening, he worked day jobs on soda trucks. And that's what he had. That was the opening. Just occasional day jobs helping out on trucks delivering soft drinks.
But because he was there, he heard about an opening at the Pepsi plant. It was a lousy job, one of cleaning up soda syrup. No one else even wanted the job. But Colin took it.
And get this; he did such a good job there, the plant manager asked him to come back the next summer. That summer, he moved over to a bottling machine. By the end of the summer, he was a deputy shift leader.
Colin was getting an important lesson in life. One success builds on another. "All work is honorable," he later wrote. "Always do your best, because someone is watching."
From job to job, success to success, Colin moved up in the world. We knew Colin - Colin Powell - as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Gulf War, and later, Secretary of State under President George W. Bush.
From job to job, assignment to assignment, Colin Powell modeled something for us. You can use past success as a building block for future success, even if the only past success you have is mopping up soda syrup really, really well.
