Gen. Colin Powell

All of these video cap tips are so special, but there’s something especially meaningful about these words from retired four-star general Colin Powell, the first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first black Secretary of State, and an American hero who grew up watching and admiring those Negro Leagues players who knew they were good enough to play in the Major Leagues but were denied the chance.

“I knew that if they kept working at it, if they showed their professionalism, if they never gave up, if they always searched for perfection, sooner of later the doors would open for them,” he says. “And that’s what happened. But it took them to do it.”