James C. Collins Quotations | Page 2

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.

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.

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.

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

The kind of commitment I find among the best performers across virtually every field is a single-minded passion for what they do, an unwavering desire for excellence in the way they think and the way they work. Genuine confidence is what launches you out of bed in the morning, and through your day with a spring in your step.

If we allow the celebrity rock-star model of leadership to triumph, we will see the decline of corporations and institutions of all types. The twentieth century was a century of greatness, but we face the very real prospect that the next century will see very few enduring great institutions.

We must reject the idea... Well-intentioned, but dead wrong... That the primary path to greatness in the social sectors is to become "more like a business." Most businesses... Like most of anything else in life... Fall somewhere between mediocre and good.

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

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

I can just let my curiosity wander unleashed.

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

Leaders who led their organizations quietly and humbly, were much more effective than flashy, charismatic high profile leaders.

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 chronic inconsistency.

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

If I'm going really, really fast, I can do a page of finished text a day, on average.

In an ironic twist, I now see Good to Great not as a sequel to Built to Last, but more of a prequel. Good to Great is about how to turn a good organization into one that produces sustained great results. Built to Last is about how you take a company with great results and turn it into an enduring great company of iconic stature.

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.

I am completely Socratic.

The most effective leaders of companies in transition are the quiet, unassuming people whose inner wiring is such that the worst circumstances bring out their best. They're unflappable, they're ready to die if they have to. But you can trust that, when bad things are happening, they will become clearheaded and focused.

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

The people who don't have a great life are the ones who settle for a good one.

Don't be interesting - be interested.

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

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

A great company will have many once-in-a-liftetime opportunities.

Recruit entrepreneurial leaders and give them freedom to determine the best path to achieving their objectives. On the other hand, individuals must commit fully to the system you use and be held rigorously accountable for their objectives. You give them freedom, but freedom within a framework.

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.

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

Our findings do not represent a quick fix, or the next fashion statement in a long string of management fads, or the next buzzword of the day, or a new 'program' to introduce. No! The only way to make any company visionary is through a long-term commitment to an eternal process of building the organization to preserve the core and stimulate progress.

Start a 'Stop Doing' list. I'll leave it as an existential dilemma on whether to put that task on your To Do list

A dream is a feeling that sticks - and propels.

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.

The greatest leaders build organizations that, in the end, don't need them.

You must ask, "What do we mean by great results?" Your goals don't have to be quantifiable, but they do have to be describable. Some leaders try to insist, "The only acceptable goals are measurable," but that's actually an undisciplined statement. Lots of goals-beauty, quality, life change, love-are worthy but not quantifiable. But you do have to be able to tell if you're making progress.