No matter how significant or life-changing your greatest hit or miss might be, neither even begins to define who you are. Each of us is a product of … - Colin Powell

Each of us is a product of all our experiences and all our interactions with other people.

In the Army, we are measured constantly and exhaustively. We get evaluation reports annually and every time we change jobs or our supervisor changes jobs. Our immediate supervisor evaluates us. So does our next higher superior, and his evaluation compares us with all our peers who serve under him. Our school performance is graded. Our spouses are silently observed. Our careers are obsessively examined and managed. The reason is simple and obvious. We do not hire from outside. If we need a battalion commander fifteen years from now, we have to grow one now from a promising new second lieutenant. Sergeants major are not hired in from Walmart or Hertz. It takes many years to grow them from basic training recruits.

No good idea succeeds simply because it is a good idea. Good ideas must have champions — people willing to believe in them, push for them, fight for them, gain adherents and other champions, and press until they succeed.

You can leave behind you a good reputation. But the only thing of momentous value we leave behind is the next generation, our kids — all our kids. We all need to work together to give them the gift of a good start in life.