Beyond the Uniform: Dr. Condoleezza Rice on Legacy, Mentorship, and the Next Greatest Generation

>> 'IRON' Mike Steadman: Welcome to Frontline Voices, a podcast brought to you by Stanford University's Hoover Institution, where we explore leadership, service, and real world solutions to some of our nation's most pressing issues. In this special episode, I sit down with Dr. Condoleezza Rice, former US Secretary of State, and current Director of the Hoover Institution, for a heartfelt conversation about faith, family, mentorship, and the power of belief.

Dr. Rice opens up about what it means to lift others as you climb, how her parents instilled in her a sense of unshakable confidence, and why the Veteran Fellowship program at Hoover is designed to help veterans write their next chapter. We also talk about imposter syndrome, the danger of internalizing statistics, and how mentors, whether they're teachers, drill sergeants, or coaches like me, can change the trajectory of a life you've ever doubted.

Whether you belong in rooms of power or wondered if your story matters, this conversation will remind you that your background doesn't disqualify you, it prepares you. This one is for every underdog veteran and change maker stepping into the arena on a daily basis. As always, I hope you enjoyed today's show and I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Dr. Rice, thank you so much for coming on Frontline Voices and also allowing me to, you know, host this podcast on behalf of the Hoover Institution. We're doing some great work with the Veteran Fellowship program, and I think it'd be great for, you know, the community to hear from you, particularly around kind of the origins of the program as well as the theme from your book, Extraordinary Ordinary People, and how that ties into the type of talent we're hoping to attract and participate here at Hoover.

Well, thank you very, very, very much, Mike. Of course, you were part of the first class, the first cohort of veterans fellows, and you are an example of why we did the program, which is that we believe very much that those who put on the uniform, those who served, have something special to give back to the country and that they are, in fact, doing that.

And they're doing it in their communities, doing it in schools. And we wanted to honor veterans in their service by recognizing that everybody talks about the greatest generation, which was of course, the generation of World War II, but we have another greatest generation. They took up the call after September 11th.

They went to Afghanistan, or Turvak, or they defended us at the front lines of freedom in Asia and in Europe and in the Middle East. And so we really believe that by giving these veterans an opportunity to reflect on how they are contributing to their communities, you have a Capstone project that you work on to take advantage of the resources here at Stanford and at Hoover.

People at the Graduate School of Business who know how to build a business, people in the sciences and engineering who can help with some of the technical aspects of what our veterans want to do. And so what we think, it's a very, very wonderful partnership between the Hoover Institution and people like you who put on the uniform and are now serving in a different way.

As to extraordinary, ordinary people, I'm one of the luckiest kids ever in America because, as I say, the book is about my parents. And really the reason it's called that is that they were in many ways ordinary people. My mom was a schoolteacher, my father was, count them, Presbyterian minister, football coach, high school guidance counselor, and later on, a university administrator.

And so in some ways, they were ordinary people, but they were extraordinary in what they expected for me, what they gave me access to. And so I think part of the reason that I'm so happy as a professor is I can pass on some of that tremendous confidence that they had in me to my students.

I had an opportunity to read your book, and by the way, I love that name. It stuck with me. And like I told you before we went live, I didn't realize that you went to the University of Denver. I'd always assumed that, you know, you graduated from Stanford or some other, you know, I hate to use these terms, but, you know, elite institutions.

But you are the epitome of what you talk about in that book, and you show what's possible. Now, you came up in a very challenging time, the civil rights movement, and people would argue that this can be a little bit of a challenging time as well. But one thing I respect about you, you've always managed to kind of stay above the noise, right?

Poise, dignity, I think those are themes throughout. And so, when you think about the veteran community and even this VFP coming out of the pandemic, right, going through that, we've seen the Afghan withdrawal, which touched a lot of people like myself who served over there, and then know where it seems like people are not communicating with one another, you know, there's a lot of divisiveness.

You know, I would love to kind of hear your thoughts on that and bridging that, that gap that seems to be taking place in America.
>> Condoleezza Rice: Yes. Well, one of the things that my upbringing taught me, and as you're right, I grew up in segregated Birmingham. I was eight when the Civil Rights movement, when the Civil Rights act passed, my parents and I couldn't go to a movie theater or to a restaurant, but they had me absolutely convinced that I could be President of the United States if I wanted to be.

And so, I think that sense of confidence that whatever your circumstances, they don't have to define you. And that is probably the lesson, not just for me, but it's the lesson of America. When you think of where so many people have come from to serve the country, so many people have come from, to be successful in, in the United States, and then the fact that you have to give back to help others become successful too, that's kind of the American story.

And so from my point of view, I was lucky. You know, my parents were educated, And Mike, it was faith, family, and education. Those were that, that's what it was all about. And so, the fact that I was able to grow up in an environment in which I could be encouraged in, they made me think that I could do anything that I wanted to do.

I think, why wouldn't I be optimistic about what can be achieved in America? And maybe if we start to focus more on that than our differences, if we start to focus more on the tremendous opportunity that is very much in our grasp. And then if we make sure that we are determined that nobody is going to miss out on that opportunity, that we are personally going to take responsibility for kids who might not have the opportunities that I had, kids who didn't go to the Naval Academy.

I know the kind of work that you do, having been yourself a boxing champion and now using those skills to give kids a sense of themselves and what they can do. So it's a story of not letting your own circumstances define you, but then making sure, when you quote, unquote, make it, that you are going to give back and make sure that somebody else has a chance to make it, too.

>> 'IRON' Mike Steadman: Why do you think there's so much pushback on that theme? And I can even set context for that. When I was growing up, I was raised in a single parent home. My mom, Willen Steadman. I'm 38. I never met my father. And my mom's been in a nursing home since I've been at the Naval Academy.

And so when people used to tell me I could be anything that I wanted to be, even before the Naval Academy. It almost felt like people were kind of putting a thumb in my eye, you know, because I hadn't seen it, I hadn't experienced it. My world was, you know, my little bucket.

But as I had opportunity to go to the Annapolis as opportunity to serve our country, as an opportunity to move to Newark and become an entrepreneur, it exposed me to so many different things. And I realized that I had to change my thinking because I was one of those people that had labels put on me at risk youth, single parent, home.

And I cannot tell you the mental challenge has been to overcome that. I've had to invest in a lot of coaching, I've had to talk to other people. And so I, I try my best to kind of share that message, but I just noticed that people are so beat up by life at times that it's hard for them to actually receive that.

And when you went on your podcast, you went on the, the, the View, I believe, and you made a comment that I thought was very enlightening, that in order for me to feel good about myself, I don't have to make you feel bad about yourself. And I think that went over people's heads or they just refused to accept that message.

>> Condoleezza Rice: Well, we have gotten ourselves into a frame of mind these days that it's not okay to say I can overcome, right? I have to take on and internalize all of the statistics about how and who I might become. I work a lot with Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

And I remember one young girl came up to me, she was probably about 12 years old, and she said, how 75. She said, I'm gonna not gonna be able to graduate from high school. She's 12 years old. I said, why? She said, because 80% of the people in my, in my elementary school don't graduate from high school.

And I said, why can't you be in the 20%? And so I just think we the it and, and people need help. I, I'd be the first to say, you know, I, I didn't come from really a difficult background. Yes, Birmingham was difficult, but my parents were able, because they were educators to open up the world of education to me.

So if you have a child who doesn't have that opportunity, at some point somebody has to advocate for that child. And maybe it is that they end up in the military and they learn themselves. Colin Powell used to talk about, what does he put it, What a goof off he was until he went into the military.

Sometimes it is a teacher, sometimes it's a staff member at the Boys and Girls Club. So even if somebody doesn't see that path to a better life through hard work, and like, there's somebody who can show them that path and he can help them along that path. And I don't mean to suggest it's easy.

There are going to be times when it's really, really hard. But that's when you need somebody to pick you up and somebody who believes in you. And I've always said about mentors, mentors are people who see more in you than you even see in yourself. And so if you try to be then a mentor to others, you will very often see in one of your students or one of your friends or one of your colleagues something they don't even see in themselves.

And what a gift to be able to give that to somebody. And I can't tell you how much I think you benefit yourself from having given that gift.
>> 'IRON' Mike Steadman: One thing I've had an epiphany about lately is that. And I'm going to use myself as an example. Right.

The chip, right, there was something about carrying the chip, and it's actually harder to let go of the chip because it exposes you to yourself. And I think sometimes it's easier for us to carry this chip on our shoulder because it makes us feel safe.
>> Condoleezza Rice: Right, I agree.

And when I was a kid, my parents were teachers, and my mom in particular taught in a very tough neighborhood called Inslee. It was shot at Weston Olin High School in Inslee, outside of Birmingham. It was steel mill country, and it was known as a rough neighborhood. And I even remember when my mom was assigned to Weston Olin, my father didn't want her to go because he thought the neighborhood was too rough.

But she believed in those kids and she wouldn't let them carry a chip on their shoulder about who they were and where they were born and their circumstances. And she said, in those days, you're going to learn classical music just as if you were raised in the best white homes, you're going to learn classical music.

And she would have shows where they would perform. And there was something else that school had. It was a split school. You had the kids who went to school all day and took classes preparing them for college. And you had the kids who went to vocational school. And so they would go half a day and then they would go to cosmetology to learn how to do hair or shop or whatever.

And there was a tendency for that school to look down on the kids who were in the vocational school. And I Love the way my mother believed that those kids in the vocational school deserved all the same benefits that the kids who were in the regular school, as they called it, were deserving of.

So the way that you get rid of that chip is sometimes you have to have somebody come and knock it off your shoulder. And it might be a teacher or it might be a drill sergeant, or it might be a football coach or a boxing coach who says, I'm not going to let you be that way.

And so one of our important goals as people who want to mentor others is we can't let our mentees get away with sloppiness. We have to say, we expect the best of you and so expect the best of yourself. And then we have to be there for them, because sometimes people are going to fall down in those circumstances, and you have to be there to help them get up and keep going.

>> 'IRON' Mike Steadman: I was listening to a business coach recently, and one of the things he said was he was interviewing a farmer, and a farmer made a comment to him that 90% of success being a farmer is dirt management. If you take care of the dirt right, it takes care of everything else.

And when I think about our community of veterans, non veterans, change makers, frontline voices, okay, having a foundation, right, of key relationships, mentors, coaches and stuff, et cetera, is very crucial, I think, to succeed, particularly when you're doing this work. Now, when I think about you, you've operated at the highest level, you know, and something that comes up a lot is like imposter syndrome for us.

I'd be remiss if I didn't say how nervous I was having the opportunity, you know, to interview you for this platform. But you've, you know, director of the Hoover Institution, former Secretary of State. Did you ever deal with imposter syndrome? And if so, how much was your foundation a key component of allowing you to overcome it?

>> Condoleezza Rice: Well, my foundation was everything to overcome it. And I want to let you in on a little, little secret. I don't care who you are, where you've come from, how privileged your background might be. Everybody has imposter syndrome. Everybody walks into that first job. Everybody walks into that first classroom and thinks, can I make it?

Am I going to be here? I see it at Stanford. I see these kids who've gone to really fine high schools. They've done great on the SAT. They've got great grades, and they sit in that classroom, and maybe there's somebody next to them who's just that much smarter.

And they think, ooh, how did I get in. So part of it is to recognize that everybody feels in the new environment somewhat insecure. And so how do you overcome that insecurity and not try to tell yourself, I don't feel it? Well, that's where mentors are helpful. That's where that foundation that you talked about, that's.

That's where the fact that if you've done something hard the next time and succeeded at it the next time you have to do something hard, it'll be easier for you if you just keep doing things that are easy for you. Just keep taking the classes that you're good at doing.

If you're good at math, just keep taking math. If you're good at writing, just keep taking writing. I tell my students all the time, do things that are hard for you, because if you do things that are hard for you, it's is more fulfilling than just continually doing things that are easy.

And that's another way that you overcome that moment when you walk in and you say, wow. I'll tell you a funny story about one of my heroes is Tiger Woods. So Tiger woods, the great golfer, was a Stanford student. And Tiger will tell you that when he first arrived at Stanford, he had a kind of swagger.

He was going to be the greatest golfer of all time until he realized that the kid in his dormitory next door was 16 and was already building his own computer. And he said at that point he felt like, okay, did they make a mistake in letting me in here?

So there's nobody, no human that at some point doesn't feel a little bit of that insecurity and foundation and mentors. And having overcome something hard before will help you get through that sense of imposter syndrome. We usually associate imposter syndrome with underrepresented minorities or with women. Trust me, I've taught for 40 years.

Everybody has it.
>> 'IRON' Mike Steadman: So what do you say to the veterans that we have tuning in from all over the country, all over the world that are considering, you know, applying for the Veteran Fellowship program, but for whatever reason, they have that voice in their head that they think, the Hoover Institution is not for me, Stanford is not for me.

That's for other people. Because we know than the veteran community you have, officer, you have enlisted. Some of us went to state colleges, some of us went to Ivy League, some of us went to service academies. And my mission with this platform is to cast a wide net and make sure that people are aware that, hey, this program isn't just for this type of veteran, it's for all of us.

But sometimes you have to put yourself out there. You have to step into the ring.
>> Condoleezza Rice: Well, one thing that the U.S. armed forces, to my mind, stand better than any other institution is that it brings people from all of those backgrounds of those circumstances. And when you're either serving your country or maybe you find yourself in Danger.

It really doesn't matter whether you went to a state college or an Ivy League. It really doesn't matter whether you're underrepresented minority or from the majority. It really doesn't matter any of that. It just matters that you are together on a task to try to deliver security for your country.

And so you've already had that experience as a veteran of being with people who come from all kinds of backgrounds. And that's true here at Stanford, and it's true at Hoover. If you were to walk these halls and collect the stories of the people, most of them are stories that started in pretty humble circumstances and they found their way up.

And so you'll be right at home, whether you're enlisted or officer, whether you went to the Naval Academy or whether you went to a community college, you're going to find that this is a place that's welcoming, because the American story is you can come from humble circumstances and you can do great things.

Nobody in America should ever feel that they are born into certain circumstances, and therefore, those will be the circumstances when they pass from this earth. No, it's quite the opposite. You have a chance to write your story. And one of the reasons that we wanted to do the veterans program is that we want to help veterans write that next chapter.

Having served, write that next chapter in what now are you going to do for your community? What are you going to do to overcome some of the divisions that we have? What are you going to do to pass it on to people who are in need? And the Hoover Veterans Fellowship will put you in the company of other people who have the same desires and ambitions, and in the company of people who can help you get there through the work that they've done as researchers and some of us who've served in government.

I think it's a great experience, and I hope people will take us up on it.
>> 'IRON' Mike Steadman: Well, Dr. Rice, I want to be respectful of your time. First of all, we appreciate your voice. I wish we could hear more in the media to counter some of these other narratives out there.

But before I let you go, I will be remiss. We took our group photo as part of the inaugural cohort. I got to talk to your photographer, and I asked your photographer, how long have you been working with Dr. Rice? And I think he said, like, 30 years.

And so when I was doing my research on you, I started to notice that you've brought up so many people along with you and people that know me. One of my personal philosophies is lifting as we climb, because what's the point of making it to the mountaintop if you're the only one there?

Now, you don't beat it on your chest, but you do it. You pull people up and you lift people up, and I want to and acknowledge you for that. You know, I consider myself in that cohort now as part of the Veteran Fellowship program and just want to say thank you so much for what you do.

Thank you for being you and you're a welcoming voice in today's society.
>> Condoleezza Rice: Well, thank you so much, and thank you for the opportunity to be on this podcast. Thank you for reaching out to all of these veterans, and thanks for everything that you do as well. And I will just say this.

I've been teaching a really, really long time. I still love it. I still love doing it every day, even if I now have students who are coming up to me and saying, you were my mother's advisor. So even with that, I'm still loving teaching. And it's one way to give back.

Our veterans show us many, many ways to give back.
>> 'IRON' Mike Steadman: Thank you, Dr Rice. And for those tuning in, please make sure you head over to hoover.org bfp and apply for the program. Thank you.