Jim Collins Quotes: If you seek advice on company growth and sustainability, and business management, the first name that pops up in mind is Jim Collins or James C. Collins. He is one of the most eminent motivational speakers, researchers, authors, and business consultants. He graduated from Stanford University in Mathematical Sciences and did the job for 18 months in Mckinsey & Co. He also worked as a product manager for Hewlett-Packard and also helped his wife to manage her triathlon career. Jim’s first book was beyond entrepreneurship and his first best-seller ‘Built To Last’. Jim’s book ‘Good to Great’ is considered as one of the best books on business and company management. We have jotted down the most inspirational Jim Collins quotes on leadership and success that will evoke the inner champion within you.
Jim Collins – Good To Great Quotes
Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline. » Jim Collins
If you have more than three priorities then you don’t have any. » Jim Collins
The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline. » Jim Collins
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. » Jim Collins
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. » Jim Collins
Great vision without great people is irrelevant. » Jim Collins
Resilency, not perfection, is the signature of greatness. » Jim Collins
A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people. » Jim Collins
Don’t take care of your career. Take care of your people. They will take care of your career. » Jim Collins
Creativity dies in an indisciplined environment. » Jim Collins
People are not your most important asset….the right people are. » Jim Collins
Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people, as they inevitably find themselves compensating for the inadequacies of the wrong people. Worse, it can drive away the best people. Strong performers are intrinsically motivated by performance, and when they see their efforts impeded by carrying extra weight, they eventually become frustrated. » Jim Collins
Managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great. » Jim Collins
Bad decisions made with good intentions, are still bad decisions. » Jim Collins
The difference between a good leader and a great leader is humility. » Jim Collins
By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average. » Jim Collins
The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconstancy. The signature of greatness is a disciplined and consistent focus on the right things. » Jim Collins
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. » Jim Collins
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. » Jim Collins
The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results. » Jim Collins
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. » Jim Collins
The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake. » James C. Collins
Change your practices without abandoning your core values. » Jim Collins
I don’t know where we should take this company, but I do know that if I start with the right people, ask them the right questions, and engage them in vigorous debate, we will find a way to make this company great. » Jim Collins
Great companies foster a productive tension between continuity and change. » Jim Collins
Faith in the endgame helps you live through the months or years of buildup. » Jim Collins
Don’t be interesting – be interested. » Jim Collins
Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice. » Jim Collins
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. » Jim Collins
Focusing solely on what you can potentially do better than any other organization is the only path to greatness. » Jim Collins
What separates people is not the presence or absence of difficulty, but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life. » Jim Collins
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. » Jim Collins
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. » Jim Collins
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. » Jim Collins
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. » Jim Collins
What separates people, Stockdale taught me, is not the presence or absence of difficulty, but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life. » James C. Collins
Whether you prevail or fail depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you. » Jim Collins
Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure. Jim Collin
A culture of discipline is not a principle of business, it is a principle of greatness. » Jim Collins
Visionary companies are so clear about what they stand for and what they’re trying to achieve that they simply don’t have room for those unwilling or unable to fit their exacting standards. » Jim Collins
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
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 engaged in the wrong line of work. » Jim Collins
The essence of profound insight is simplicity. » Jim Collins
In a world of constant change, the fundamentals are more important than ever. » Jim Collins
The moment a leader allows himself to become the primary reality people worry about, rather than reality being the primary reality, you have a recipe for mediocrity, or worse. This is one of the key reasons why less charismatic leaders often produce better long-term results than their more charismatic counterparts. Indeed, » James C. Collins
The critical question is not whether you’ll have luck, but what you do with the luck that you get.
thoughtless reliance on technology is a liability, » James C. Collins
The greatest leaders build organizations that, in the end, don’t need them. » Jim Collins
while you can buy your way to growth, you absolutely cannot buy your way to greatness. » James C. Collins
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. The management team » James C. Collins
The x factor of a great leader is humility combined with will. » Jim Collins
You absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts. The good-to-great companies operated. » James C. Collins
An organization is not truly great, if it cannot be great without you. » Jim Collins
You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit. » Jim Collins
innovation without discipline leads to disaster. » Jim Collins
The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is inconsistency. » Jim Collins
Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment Would you capture it? Or just let it slip? Jim Collin
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. » Jim Collins
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.” » Jim Collins
The only way to remain great is to keep on applying the fundamental principles that made you great. » Jim Collins
True leadership has people who follow when they have the freedom not to. » Jim Collins
Charisma can be as much a liability as an asset, as the strength of your leadership personality can deter people from bringing you the brutal facts. » James C. Collins
That good is the enemy of great is not just a business problem. It is a human problem. » Jim Collins
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. » Jim Collins
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
One of the most important steps you can take in building a visionary company is not an action, but a shift in perspective. » Jim Collins
The only way to deliver to the people who are achieving is to not burden them with the people who are not achieving. » Jim Collins
Indeed, if there is any one “secret” to an enduring great company, it is the ability to manage continuity and change—a discipline that must be consciously practiced, even by the most visionary of companies. » Jim Collins
Start a ‘Stop Doing’ list. I’ll leave it as an existential dilemma on whether to put that task on your To Do list. » Jim Collins
Comfort is not the objective in a visionary company. Indeed, visionary companies install powerful mechanisms to create /dis/comfort–to obliterate complacency–and thereby stimulate change and improvement /before/ the external world demands it. » James C. Collins
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. » Jim Collins
certain: You absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts. The good-to-great companies operated. » Jim Collins
We will never give up. We will never capitulate. It might take a long time, but we will find a way to prevail.” » Jim Collins
In determining “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. » Jim Collins
When you marry operating excellence with innovation, you multiply the value of your creativity. » Jim Collins
By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average. » Jim Collins
Larger-than-life, celebrity leaders who ride in from the outside are negatively correlated with taking a company from good to great. Ten of eleven good-to-great CEOs came from inside the company, whereas the comparison companies tried outside CEOs six times more often. » James C. Collins
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. » Jim Collins
lasting transformations from good to great follow a general pattern of buildup followed by breakthrough. » James C. Collins