Top 140 James C. Collins Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Discipline is consistency of action.”

— James C. Collins

2. “You need self-control in an out-of-control world.”

— James C. Collins

Featured in: Self Control Quotes

3. “Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”

— James C. Collins

4. “Good is the enemy of great.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

6. “Good is the enemy of great. That’s why so few things become great.”

— James C. Collins

7. “Get the right people on the bus and in the right seat.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

9. “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.”

— James C. Collins

10. “How can we do better tomorrow than we did today?”

— James C. Collins

11. “Bad decisions made with good intentions, are still bad decisions.”

— James C. Collins

12. “If you have more than three priorities then you don’t have any.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

14. “People need BHAGs – big hairy audacious goals.”

— James C. Collins

15. “Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, humble and fearless.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

17. “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.”

— James C. Collins

18. “The difference between a good leader and a great leader is humility.”

— James C. Collins

19. “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.”

— James C. Collins

20. “The x factor of a great leader is humility combined with will.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

23. “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

24. “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.”

— James C. Collins

25. “Greatest danger is not failure, but be successful and not know why.”

— James C. Collins

26. “You can’t manufacture passion or “motivate” people to feel passionate. You can only discover what ignites your passion and the passions of those around you.”

— James C. Collins

27. “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.”

— James C. Collins

28. “Whether you prevail or fail depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.”

— James C. Collins

29. “The essence of profound insight is simplicity.”

— James C. Collins

30. “In a world of constant change, the fundamentals are more important than ever.”

— James C. Collins

31. “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.”

— James C. Collins

32. “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.”

— James C. Collins

33. “How can you succeed by helping others succeed? We succeed at our very best only when we help others succeed.”

— James C. Collins

34. “Good-to-great companies set their goals and strategies based on understanding; comparison companies set their goals and strategies based on bravado.”

— James C. Collins

35. “By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average.”

— James C. Collins

36. “Start a ‘Stop Doing’ list. I’ll leave it as an existential dilemma on whether to put that task on your To Do list.”

— James C. Collins

37. “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.”

— James C. Collins

38. “Not one of the good-to-great companies focused obsessively on growth.”

— James C. Collins

39. “Great companies foster a productive tension between continuity and change.”

— James C. Collins

40. “A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people.”

— James C. Collins

41. “A key psychology for leading from good to great is the Stockdale Paradox: Retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. UNEXPECTED.”

— James C. Collins

42. “I am not failing – I am growing! Do you have the ability to reframe failure as growth in order to achieve your goals?”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

45. “In determing “the right people,” the good-to-great companies placed greater weight on character attributes than on specific educational background, practical skills, specialized knowledge, or work experience.”

— James C. Collins

46. “Dreams make you click, juice you, turn you on, excite the living daylights out of you. You cannot wait to get out of bed to continue pursuing your dream. The kind of dream I’m talking about gives meaning to your life. it is the ultimate motivator.”

— James C. Collins

47. “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.”

— James C. Collins

48. “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.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

50. “The greatest leaders build organizations that, in the end, don’t need them.”

— James C. Collins