Quotes from James C. Collins

The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you've made a hiring mistake.

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

What separates people, Stockdale taught me, is not the presence or absence of difficulty, but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life.

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.

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

I can just let my curiosity wander unleashed.

Genuine confidence is what launches you out of bed in the morning, and through your day with a spring in your step.

Great vision without great people is irrelevant.

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

Bad decisions made with good intentions, are still bad decisions.

Get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not every financial company toppled during the 2008 crisis, and some seized the opportunity to take advantage of weaker competitors in the midst of the tumult.

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

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.

If your company disappeared, would it leave a gaping hole that could not easily be filled by any other enterprise on the planet?

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.

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?

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