People are not your most important asset….the right people are.
JAMES C. COLLINSThe best CEOs in our research display tremendous ambition for their company combined with the stoic will to do whatever it takes, no matter how brutal (within the bounds of the company’s core values), to make the company great.
More James C. Collins Quotes
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Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or hard the decisions.
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You absolutely must have the discipline not to hire until you find the right people.
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The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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Yet at the same time they display a remarkable humility about themselves, ascribing much of their own success to luck, discipline and preparation rather than personal genius.
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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.
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The only way to deliver to the people who are achieving is to not burden them with the people who are not achieving.
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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.
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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)
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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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By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average.
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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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Discipline is consistency of action.
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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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An organization is not truly great, if it cannot be great without you.
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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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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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The only mistakes you can learn from are the ones you survive.
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Creativity dies in an indisciplined environment.
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We learned that a former prisoner of war had more to teach us about what it takes to find a path to greatness than most books on corporate strategy.
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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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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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Creative leadership impact increases in your 50’s. When I turn 50 I want to say, “Nice start!”
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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.
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