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Top 15 Jim Collins Quotes (2026 Update)

Jim Collins Quote: “Good is the enemy of great.”

1. “Good is the enemy of great.”

— Jim Collins

Featured in: Famous Quotes, Inspirational Business Quotes, Excellence Quotes, Greatness Quotes

Jim Collins Quote: “The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.”

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

— Jim Collins

Jim Collins Quote: “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.”

3. “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.”

— Jim Collins

Jim Collins Quote: “The flywheel, when properly conceived and executed, creates both continuity and change. On the one hand, you need to stay with a flywheel long enough to get its full compounding effect. On the other hand, to keep the flywheel spinning, you need to continually renew, and improve each and every component.”

4. “The flywheel, when properly conceived and executed, creates both continuity and change. On the one hand, you need to stay with a flywheel long enough to get its full compounding effect. On the other hand, to keep the flywheel spinning, you need to continually renew, and improve each and every component.”

— Jim Collins

Jim Collins Quote: “Each turn builds upon previous work as you make a series of good decisions, supremely well executed, that compound one upon another. This is how you build greatness.”

5. “Each turn builds upon previous work as you make a series of good decisions, supremely well executed, that compound one upon another. This is how you build greatness.”

— Jim Collins

6. “We were surprised, shocked really, to discover the type of leadership required for turning a good company into a great one. Compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities, the good-to-great leaders seem to have come from Mars. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy – these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar.”

— Jim Collins

Jim Collins Quote: “What matters most is how well you understand your flywheel and how well you execute on each component over a long series of iterations.”

7. “What matters most is how well you understand your flywheel and how well you execute on each component over a long series of iterations.”

— Jim Collins

Jim Collins Quote: “The best students are those who never quite believe their professors.”

8. “The best students are those who never quite believe their professors.”

— Jim Collins

Jim Collins Quote: “For a truly great company, the Big Thing is never any specific line of business or product or idea or invention. The Big Thing is your underlying flywheel architecture, properly conceived.”

9. “For a truly great company, the Big Thing is never any specific line of business or product or idea or invention. The Big Thing is your underlying flywheel architecture, properly conceived.”

— Jim Collins

Jim Collins Quote: “A culture of discipline is not a principle of business; it is a principle of greatness.”

10. “A culture of discipline is not a principle of business; it is a principle of greatness.”

— Jim Collins

Jim Collins Quote: “Deep restlessness is far more important and powerful than simple ambition or raw intelligence. It is the foundation of resilience and self motivation.”

11. “Deep restlessness is far more important and powerful than simple ambition or raw intelligence. It is the foundation of resilience and self motivation.”

— Jim Collins

Jim Collins Quote: “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.”

12. “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

Jim Collins Quote: “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.”

13. “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.”

— Jim Collins

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

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

— Jim Collins

Jim Collins Quote: “They didn’t use discussion as a sham process to let people “have their say” so that they could “buy in” to a predetermined decision. The process was more like a heated scientific debate, with people engaged in a search for the best answers.”

15. “They didn’t use discussion as a sham process to let people “have their say” so that they could “buy in” to a predetermined decision. The process was more like a heated scientific debate, with people engaged in a search for the best answers.”

— Jim Collins

Jim Collins Quote: “Visionary companies pursue a cluster of objectives, of which making money is only one – and not necessarily the primary one.”

16. “Visionary companies pursue a cluster of objectives, of which making money is only one – and not necessarily the primary one.”

— Jim Collins

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