Jim Collins > Quotes

“Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don't have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don't have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“When [what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be best in the world at and what drives your economic engine] come together, not only does your work move toward greatness, but so does your life. For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then, you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you’ve had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people, as they inevitably find themselves compensating for the inadequacies of the wrong people. Worse, it can drive away the best people. Strong performers are intrinsically motivated by performance, and when they see their efforts impeded by carrying extra weight, they eventually become frustrated.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

“For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Bad decisions made with good intentions, are still bad decisions.”
― Jim Collins, How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In

“The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.”
― James C. Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

“Creativity dies in an indisciplined environment.”
― Jim Collins

“By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

“I don't know where we should take this company, but I do know that if I start with the right people, ask them the right questions, and engage them in vigorous debate, we will find a way to make this company great.”
― Jim Collins

“Faith in the endgame helps you live through the months or years of buildup.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit. —HARRY S. TRUMAN1”
― James C. Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
― Jim Collins, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

“A culture of discipline is not a principle of business, it is a principle of greatness.”
― Jim Collins

“What separates people, Stockdale taught me, is not the presence or absence of difficulty, but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life.”
― James C. Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

“What separates people is not the presence or absence of difficulty, but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life.”
― Jim Collins

“Consider the idea that charisma can be as much a liability as an asset. Your strength of personality can sow the seeds of problems, when people filter the brutal facts from you.”
― Jim Collins

“Every good-to-great company had Level 5 leadership during the pivotal transition years. • “Level 5” refers to a five-level hierarchy of executive capabilities, with Level 5 at the top. Level 5 leaders embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. They are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves. • Level 5 leaders set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation, whereas egocentric Level 4 leaders often set up their successors for failure. • Level 5 leaders display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated. In contrast, two thirds of the comparison companies had leaders with gargantuan personal egos that contributed to the demise or continued mediocrity of the company. • Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or hard the decisions. • Level 5 leaders display a workmanlike diligence—more plow horse than show horse. • Level 5 leaders look out the window to attribute success to factors other than themselves. When things go poorly, however, they look in the mirror and blame themselves, taking full responsibility. The comparison CEOs often did just the opposite—they looked in the mirror to take credit for success, but out the window to assign blame for disappointing results.”
― James C. Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

“Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

“It occurs to me,Jim,that you spend too much time trying to be interesting. Why don't you invest more time being interested?"

Collin's advice from John Gardner that he took to heart.”
― Jim Collins

“Visionary companies are so clear about what they stand for and what they’re trying to achieve that they simply don’t have room for those unwilling or unable to fit their exacting standards.”
― Jim Collins, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

“Indeed, the real question is not, “Why greatness?” but “What work makes you feel compelled to try to create greatness?” If you have to ask the question, “Why should we try to make it great? Isn’t success enough?” then you’re probably engaged in the wrong line of work.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

“First Who ... Then What. We expected that good-to-great leaders would begin by setting a new vision and strategy. We found instead that they first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats—and then they figured out where to drive it. The old adage “People are your most important asset” turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.”
― James C. Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

“Visionary companies make some of their best moves by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and—quite literally—accident. What looks in retrospect like brilliant foresight and preplanning was often the result of “Let’s just try a lot of stuff and keep what works.”
― Jim Collins, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

“Freedom is only part of the story and half the truth.... That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplanted by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast. —VIKTOR E. FRANKL, Man’s Search for Meaning”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't