The challenge is not just to build a company that can endure; but to build one that is worthy of enduring. James C. Collins More Quotes by James C. Collins More Quotes From James C. Collins The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline. James C. Collins discipline purpose business The only way to remain great is to keep on applying the fundamental principles that made you great. James C. Collins principles fundamentals way You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. James C. Collins perseverance faith reality The inner experience of fallure is totally different than failure. Going to fallure means 100% commitment - you leave nothing in reserve, no mental or physical resource untapped, you never give yourself a psychological out. Failure means making a decision to let go, to be less than 100% committed, when confronted by fear, pain and uncertainty. James C. Collins pain letting-go mean 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 life-and-love good-life people The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is inconsistency. James C. Collins inconsistency mediocrity signatures 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. James C. Collins where-you-are important world By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average. James C. Collins good-to-great definitions average 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 business responsibility blood The main point is first get the right people on the bus (and wrong people off the bus) before you figure out where to drive it. The second key point is the degree of sheer rigor in people decisions in order to take a company from Good to Great. James C. Collins keys order people 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. James C. Collins good-to-great impossible meaningful A culture of discipline is not a principle of business, it is a principle of greatness. James C. Collins discipline greatness principles "Growth!" is not a Hedgehog Concept. Rather, if you have the right Hedgehog Concept and make decisions relentlessly consistent with it, you will create such momentum that your main problem will not be how to grow, but how not to grow too fast. James C. Collins growth decision business Smart people instinctively understand the dangers of entrusting our future to self-serving leaders who use our institutions, whether in the corporate or social sectors, to advance their own interests. James C. Collins smart self people If I were running a company today, I would have one priority above all others: to acquire as many of the best people as I could. I'd put off everything else to fill my bus. Because things are going to come back. My flywheel is going to start to turn. And the single biggest constraint on the success of my organization is the ability to get and to hang on to enough of the right people. James C. Collins organization business running No matter what. Wherever your mind wanders, it seems to turn up at the same Field of Dreams. It's the vision you wake up with in the morning, and it's the last thing you picture before you fall asleep. Everytime you think of it, the idea in your head seems to get more vivid, filled in with more detail: You not only want to win a gold medal at the Olympics, you not only can see yourself standing there on the podium, but you can also feel the goose bumps as your national anthem is played; the tears are in your eyes. (That's how real a dream can be and should be) James C. Collins dream success morning 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. James C. Collins organization class fall Companies that change best over time know first and foremost what should not change. James C. Collins company should firsts The drive for progress doesn't wait for the external world to say "It's time to change." James C. Collins progress waiting world Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It's not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious-but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves. James C. Collins ambition goal self