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Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.

James C. Collins

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James C. Collins
Age: 66
Born: 1958
Born: January 25
Author
Businessperson
Journalist
Writer
Boulder
Colorado
Circumstances
Decision
Circumstance
Choices
Largely
Turns
Greatness
Success
Function
Business
Discipline
Inspirational
Conscious
Matter
Choice

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Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment.
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Good-to-great companies set their goals and strategies based on understanding comparison companies set their goals and strategies based on bravado.
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Just because a company falls doesn't invalidate what we can learn by studying that company when it was at its historical best.
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First figure out your partners, then figure out what ideas to pursue. The most important thing isn't the market you target, the product you develop or the financing, but the founding team.
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The critical question is not whether you'll have luck, but what you do with the luck that you get.
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You can't manufacture passion or motivate people to feel passionate. You can only discover what ignites your passion and the passions of those around you.
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Focusing solely on what you can potentially do better than any other organization is the only path to greatness.
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Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure.
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In a world of constant change, the fundamentals are more important than ever.
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Good is the enemy of great. And that's one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.
James C. Collins
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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
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It's what you do before you are in trouble, so that you can be strong when people most need you.
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Consider the idea that charisma can be as much a liability as an asset. Your strength of personality can sow the seeds of problems, when people filter the brutal facts from you.
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The x factor of a great leader is humility combined with will.
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Companies that change best over time know first and foremost what should not change.
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The people who don't have a great life are the ones who settle for a good one.
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In an ironic twist, I now see Good to Great not as a sequel to Built to Last, but more of a prequel. Good to Great is about how to turn a good organization into one that produces sustained great results. 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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If I'm going really, really fast, I can do a page of finished text a day, on average.
James C. Collins
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Discipline should amplify creativity rather than stifle it.
James C. Collins
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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