James C. Collins

The difficult task is to marry relentless discipline with creativity, neither letting discipline inhibit creativity nor letting creativity erode discipline.

James Collins

The only truly reliable source of stability is a strong inner core and the willingness to change and adapt everything except that core.

James Collins

The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.

James Collins

The secret to a successful retirement is to find your retirement sweet spot. The sweet spot is where your passions, what you do best, and what people will pay you to do overlap.

James 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.

James Collins

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.

James Collins

Throw leaders into an extreme environment, and it will separate the stark differences between greatness and mediocrity.

James Collins

Visionary companies pursue a cluster of objectives, of which making money is only one – and not necessarily the primary one.

James Collins

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.

James Collins