Those who build and perpetuate mediocrity…are motivated more by the fear of being left behind.
JAMES C. COLLINSThrow leaders into an extreme environment, and it will separate the stark differences between greatness and mediocrity.
More James C. Collins Quotes
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Companies that change best over time know first and foremost what should not change.
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In a world of constant change, the fundamentals are more important than ever.
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I can just let my curiosity wander unleashed.
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The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.
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By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average.
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Whether you prevail or fail depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.
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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.
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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.”
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I am completely Socratic.
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I’ve never found an important decision made by a great organization that was made at a point of unanimity.
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Great companies foster a productive tension between continuity and change.
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Built to Last is about how you take a company with great results and turn it into an enduring great company of iconic stature.
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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.
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Level 5 leaders are differentiated from other levels of leaders in that they have a wonderful blend of personal humility combined with extraordinary professional will.
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Everytime you think of it, the idea in your head seems to get more vivid, filled in with more detail:
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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.
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The challenge is not just to build a company that can endure; but to build one that is worthy of enduring.
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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.
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If I’m going really, really fast, I can do a page of finished text a day, on average.
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Not one of the good-to-great companies focused obsessively on growth.
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A visionary company doesn’t simply balance between preserving a tightly held core ideology and stimulating vigorous change and movement; it does both to an extreme.
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…the question, Why try for greatness? would seem almost tautological. If you’re doing something you care that much about, and you believe in its purpose deeply enough, then it is impossible to imagine not trying to make it great. It’s just a given.
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Throw leaders into an extreme environment, and it will separate the stark differences between greatness and mediocrity.
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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.
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Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure.
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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.
JAMES C. COLLINS