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In many ways, we came from completely dIfferent
worlds. Colin Powell was born in Harlem, was raised in the
South Bronx and, as a young ROTC cadet in the late 1950s,
endured the injustice of the segregated South. I was born in
San Francisco and grew up in the 1970s amid the Summer
of Love and marches for women’s rights, where neighbors
proudly flew rainbow flags.
He rose through the ranks of the military and Washing-
ton with a deep respect for institutions, hierarchy and tradi-
tion. I first made my mark building adventure games for the
Atari 800 and later by starting my own software company in
an industry that celebrates innovation and breaking old mod-
els with new, transformative technologies.
But when our paths unexpectedly crossed in 1997, Colin
Powell helped change the way I see business and the role of
companies in the world.
I was in Philadelphia for the Presidents’ Summit for
America’s Future, chaired by Powell and his nonprofit, Amer-
ica’s Promise, dedicated to lifting up at-risk youth. I was a
32-year-old Silicon Valley techie looking for inspiration, and
I’ve never forgotten what the former general said when he
took the stage: “This is a time for each and every one of us to
look into our own heart, to look into our own community, find
someone who is in need, find someone who is wanting, find
someone who is looking up to us, and for each and every one
of us to reach down, to reach back, to reach across, to lift up
a fellow American and put him on the road to success in this
wonderful country of ours.”
Powell told us that day that business could do more than
simply make money. We had to be a force for good and a
platform for change. It was the best advice I’d ever heard,
REMEMBRANCE
What I learned
from Colin Powell
By Marc Benioff
DAVID HUME KENNERLY—GETTY IMAGES
General
Powell
knew that to
build trust,
companies
need a
purpose
beyond profit
△
Powell, then
Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of
Staff, off the coast
of Somalia in 1993
and in the years that followed, he
became one of the most important
mentors in my life.
In 2014, I InvIted General Powell
to join Salesforce’s board of directors.
I wanted our company to benefit from
his wisdom, his expertise and the core
values that guided his extraordinary life.
He served on our board for seven
years. With his military discipline, he
never missed a call. I came to appreci-
ate the qualities that Presidents of both
parties clearly valued in him—his integ-
rity, his honesty, his pragmatism and his
focus on problem-solving. He called me
Marc, but I always called him Sir.
General Powell knew that at this mo-
ment in history, when there is so much
public mistrust in institutions, leaders
need to make trust one of their highest
values. He was the first to admit that he
wasn’t perfect. He acknowledged mis-
takes, held himself accountable and de-
manded the same of others. He spoke out
courageously when he felt our nation or
its leaders were falling short of our ideals.
General Powell knew that to build
trust, companies need a purpose be-
yond profit. He knew business could
not sit on the sidelines in the march for
equality. As a board member, he often
joined our all-hands conference calls
with many of our 75,000 employees.
On one call, after the brutal murder of
George Floyd, he recalled being a young
soldier fighting in Vietnam while his
wife Alma, back home in Birmingham,
Ala., guarded their house at night from
racist mobs led by police chief Bull Con-
nor. “We’ve come a long way,” he told
us, “but we’ve got a very long, long way
to go yet.”
Today, many CEOs struggle with how
to have a purpose beyond profit. Many
Americans feel we’re hopelessly divided
as a country. Yes, these are difficult days.
But I share Colin Powell’s perpetual op-
timism. Because if we need a lodestar
for how to live and work and serve oth-
ers, we could ask for no greater exam-
ple than the trailblazer from the South
Bronx who taught us to embrace our
duty to one another—as neighbors, as
Americans and as fellow human beings.
Benioff is the co-owner of TIME and the
chair and CEO of Salesforce
