It was September 1995, and the world was beating a path to Colin Powell’s door. Rumors swirled about a possible run for the White House.

I interviewed him at his Alexandria, Va., office, hoping to be the one to break the news of his candidacy. His first book, “My American Journey,” had been published that year. I led with questions about that. He said he was surprised at how much he remembered and how much of a story he had to tell, connecting the dots in his life—young black kid, immigrant parents, coming up through the...

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell autographs copies of his book at the Trover Shop on Capitol Hill, Sept. 18, 1995.

Photo: Mark Reinstein/ZUMA PRESS

It was September 1995, and the world was beating a path to Colin Powell’s door. Rumors swirled about a possible run for the White House.

I interviewed him at his Alexandria, Va., office, hoping to be the one to break the news of his candidacy. His first book, “My American Journey,” had been published that year. I led with questions about that. He said he was surprised at how much he remembered and how much of a story he had to tell, connecting the dots in his life—young black kid, immigrant parents, coming up through the Bronx.

He recalled giving the manuscript to his oldest daughter. She was an actress with “a sense of drama and stories.” The next morning he said to her, “Well, I hope you get to it soon.” She responded: “I stayed up all night reading it! I know more about you than I’ve ever known before!” At that point, Powell said, “I was a success as an author.”

What people could learn from his book was that “we live in a remarkable country where ordinary people of whatever background or origin can do extraordinary things. We sometimes forget it. And there are some places in our country and some groups in our country where that faith may be shaken.”

Powell recounted a luncheon exchange he witnessed between President Reagan and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Reagan was commenting on how immigrant kids did so well when they came to the U.S.—they enter the school system and immediately flourish, especially Asian kids. In passing, Reagan said to Lee, “I wonder what would happen if American youngsters were dropped into a foreign country, would you see the same sort of acceleration and performance?”

Powell called Lee Kuan Yew’s answer “unique.” “Mr. President,” he said, “you don’t understand. It’s not reversible. There is no other place where you can take a foreigner and plop them in and”—Powell smacked the tabletop for effect—“five years later out pops an American of hyphenated background who can go as far as his talents will take him. It can’t happen anywhere else.”

I had to find a sneaky way to ask him about running for president. I couched it in a question about the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, whose principles Powell applied in the Gulf War. Clausewitz was a soldier and scholar but never commanded troops. How did Powell think he would do on the battlefield?

The former general gave a slight grin and a glint in his eye suggested he knew what I was getting at: Powell had never held political office.

“Theory alone doesn’t do it,” he said. “You’ve got to have a force in a personality, the ability to dominate a situation, and the ability to inspire people, to be a great commander.”

He offered his favorite “leadership motto,” one that he had used over and over, he said, yet wasn’t sure where it originated. “A great leader is someone whose troops would follow him anywhere, if just out of curiosity . . . somebody who they’d follow just to see where the hell he’s going.”

Mr. Davis is a former editor at Reader’s Digest.

Journal Editorial Report: How much of this story should you believe? Images: AFP/Getty Images Composite: Mark Kelly The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition