James C. Collins Quotes

Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.

Great vision without great people is irrelevant.

Those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products. It is one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.

Look, I don't really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we'll figure out how to take it someplace great.

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 great 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 on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered.

Managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great.

Comparison, a great teacher once told me, is the cardinal sin of modern life. It traps us in a game that we can't win. Once we define ourselves in terms of others, we lose the freedom to shape our own lives.

The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you've made a hiring mistake. The best people don't need to be managed. Guided, taught, led-yes. But not tightly managed.

Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment.

Good is the enemy of great. That's why so few things become great.

For no matter what we achieve, if we don't spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect, we cannot possibly have a great life. But if we spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect - people we really enjoy being on the bus with and who will never disappoint us - then we will almost certainly have a great life, no matter where the bus goes. The people we interviewed from the good-to-great companies clearly loved what they did, largely because they loved who they did it with.

True leadership has people who follow when they have the freedom not to.

The difference between a good leader and a great leader is humility.

If you have more than three priorities then you don't have any.

The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.

Bad decisions made with good intentions, are still bad decisions.

The inner experience of fallure is totally different than failure. Going to fallure means 100% commitment - you leave nothing in reserve, no mental or physical resource untapped, you never give yourself a psychological out. Failure means making a decision to let go, to be less than 100% committed, when confronted by fear, pain and uncertainty.

Don't take care of your career. Take care of your people. They will take care of your career.

Focusing solely on what you can potentially do better than any other organization is the only path to greatness.

We are not imprisoned by circumstances, setbacks, mistakes or staggering defeats, we are freed by our choices.

Great companies foster a productive tension between continuity and change.

You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

The only way to remain great is to keep on applying the fundamental principles that made you great.

It is more important to know who you are than where you are going, for where you are going will change as the world around you changes.

Good is the enemy of great. And that's one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.

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.

Profit is like oxygen, food, water, and blood for the body; they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life.

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.

An organization is not truly great, if it cannot be great without you.

The main point is first get the right people on the bus (and wrong people off the bus) before you figure out where to drive it. The second key point is the degree of sheer rigor in people decisions in order to take a company from Good to Great.

Get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats...

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.

A culture of discipline is not a principle of business, it is a principle of greatness.

Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure.

That good is the enemy of great is not just a business problem. It is a human problem.

"Growth!" is not a Hedgehog Concept. Rather, if you have the right Hedgehog Concept and make decisions relentlessly consistent with it, you will create such momentum that your main problem will not be how to grow, but how not to grow too fast.

People are not your most important asset....the right people are.

The only mistakes you can learn from are the ones you survive.

Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It's not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious-but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.

Change your practices without abandoning your core values.

Genius of AND. Embrace both extremes on a number of dimensions at the same time. Instead of choosing a OR B, figure out how to have A AND B-purpose AND profit, continuity AND change, freedom AND responsibility, etc.

Smart people instinctively understand the dangers of entrusting our future to self-serving leaders who use our institutions, whether in the corporate or social sectors, to advance their own interests.

The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconstancy. The signature of greatness is a disciplined and consistent focus on the right things.

The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is inconsistency.

Perhaps your quest to be part of building something great will not fall in your business life. But find it somewhere. If not in corporate life, then perhaps in making your church great. If not there, then perhaps a nonprofit, or a community organization, or a class you teach. Get involved in something that you care so much about that you want to make it the greatest it can possibly be, not because of what you will get, but just because it can be done.

The drive for progress doesn't wait for the external world to say "It's time to change."

The critical question is not whether you'll have luck, but what you do with the luck that you get.

A visionary company doesn't simply balance between idealism and profitability: it seeks to be highly idealistic and highly profitable.

Most people will look back and realize they did not have a great life because it's just so easy to settle for a good life.

Don't be interesting - be interested.