There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure. – Colin Powell

For this quote, we are talking about success in the general scope and not necessarily business success.

Colin Powell a former secretary of state, a professional soldier for 3 decades, an average C student by his own admittance, and a 4 star US general.
Nothing that can be linked to entrepreneurship or business life, but lots of experience in army. Military is something that can also be a source of wisdom, due to similarity of running a company to running an army.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.

– Colin Powell

There are a lot of secrets to success, like luck, working smart, etc etc … Thus the first part of the quote is highly inaccurate.

But i do agree on the other half, that preparation, hard work and learning from failures leads often to success.

Preparation: that is an obvious point, in everything preparation is important, otherwise you waste time accomplishing nothing or little.
Hard Work: Also an important factor for success, even-though it is not the only factor! Many people work hard but stay poor.
Learning from failures: Yes, but also be smarter and learn from other people’s failures, instead of making your own!

Thus i would rewrite the quote as :
Success is most often the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.