Top 140 James C. Collins Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “The good-to-great companies did not focus principally on what to do to become great; they focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing.”

— James C. Collins

52. “The challenge is not just to build a company that can endure; but to build one that is worthy of enduring.”

— James C. Collins

53. “Victory awaits him who has everything in order – luck people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.” – Roald Amundsen, The South Pole.”

— James C. Collins

54. “In a truly great company profits and cash flow become like blood and water to a healthy body: They are absolutely essential for life but they are not the very point of life.”

— James C. Collins

55. “Faith in the endgame helps you live through the months or years of buildup.”

— James C. Collins

56. “The only truly reliable source of stability is a strong inner core and the willingness to change and adapt everything except that core.”

— James C. Collins

57. “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.”

— James C. Collins

58. “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

— James C. Collins

59. “Throw leaders into an extreme environment, and it will separate the stark differences between greatness and mediocrity.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

61. “Some managers are uncomfotable with expressing emotion about their dreams, but it’s the passion and emotion that will attract and motivate others.”

— James C. Collins

62. “If you have a charismatic cause you don’t need to be a charismatic leader.”

— James C. Collins

63. “The only way to deliver to the people who are achieving is to not burden them with the people who are not achieving.”

— James C. Collins

64. “You absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts. The good-to-great companies operated.”

— James C. Collins

65. “The drive for progress doesn’t wait for the external world to say “It’s time to change.””

— James C. Collins

66. “You absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts. The good-to-great companies operated in accordance with this principle, and the comparison companies generally did not.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

68. “Creativity dies in an indisciplined environment.”

— James C. Collins

69. “There is a sense of exhilaration that comes from facing head-on the hard truths and saying, “We will never give up. We will never capitulate. It might take a long time, but we will find a way to prevail.””

— James C. Collins

70. “Resilency, not perfection, is the signature of greatness.”

— James C. Collins

71. “Change your practices without abandoning your core values.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

73. “A Culture of Discipline. All companies have a culture, some companies have discipline, but few companies have a culture of discipline. When you have disciplined people, you don’t need hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don’t need bureaucracy. When you have disciplined action, you don’t need excessive controls. When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great performance. Technology.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

75. “If we only have great companies, we will merely have a prosperous society, not a great one. Economic growth and power are the means, not the definition, of a great nation.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

77. “Don’t take care of your career. Take care of your people. They will take care of your career.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

79. “The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.”

— James C. Collins

80. “It may seem odd to talk about something as soft and fuzzy as “passion” as an integral part of a strategic framework. But throughout the good-to-great companies, passion became a key part of the Hedgehog Concept.”

— James C. Collins

81. “You absolutely must have the discipline not to hire until you find the right people.”

— James C. Collins

82. “First figure out your partners, then figure out what ideas to pursue. The most important thing isn’t the market you target, the product you develop or the financing, but the founding team.”

— James C. Collins

83. “It’s what you do before you are in trouble, so that you can be strong when people most need you.”

— James C. Collins

84. “Companies that change best over time know first and foremost what should not change.”

— James C. Collins

85. “The secret to a successful retirement is to find your retirement sweet spot. The sweet spot is where your passions, what you do best, and what people will pay you to do overlap.”

— James C. Collins

86. “Far more difficult than implementing change is figuring out what works, understanding why it works, grasping when to change, and knowing when not to.”

— James C. Collins

87. “There is nothing I find more exciting than picking a question that I don’t know the answer to and embarking on a quest for answers.”

— James C. Collins

88. “Not all time in life is equal. How many opportunities do you get to talk about what your life is going to add up to with people thinking about the same question?”

— James C. Collins

89. “You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit. – HARRY S. TRUMAN1.”

— James C. Collins

90. “I can just let my curiosity wander unleashed.”

— James C. Collins

91. “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 int he wrong line of work.”

— James C. Collins

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

— James C. Collins

93. “Greatness is an inherently dynamic process, not an end point. The moment you think of yourself as great, your slide toward mediocrity will have already begun.”

— James C. Collins

94. “The good-to-great companies made a habit of putting their best people on their best opportunities, not their biggest problems. The comparison companies had a penchant for doing just the opposite, failing to grasp the fact that managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great. There is an important.”

— James C. Collins

95. “Yes, the world is changing, and will continue to do so. But that does not mean we should stop the search for timeless principles. Think of it this way: While the practices of engineering continually evolve and change, the laws of physics remain relatively fixed. I like to think of our work as a search for timeless principles –.”

— James C. Collins

96. “Those who turn good organizations into great organizations are motivated by a deep creative urge and an inner compulsion for sheer unadulterated excellence for its own sake.”

— James C. Collins

97. “Think of the transformation as a process of buildup followed by breakthrough, broken into three broad stages: disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action. Within each of these three stages, there are two key concepts, shown in the framework and described below. Wrapping around this entire framework is a concept we came to call the flywheel, which captures the gestalt of the entire process of going from good to great.”

— James C. Collins

98. “To create an effective envisioned future requires a certain level of unreasonable confidence and commitment. Keep in mind that a BHAG is not just a goal; it is a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal.”

— James C. Collins

99. “The best people don’t need to be managed. Guided, taught, led – yes. But not tightly managed.”

— James C. Collins

100. “Get keep right people.”

— James C. Collins