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The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconstancy. The signature of greatness is a disciplined and consistent focus on the right things.

James C. Collins

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James C. Collins
Age: 66
Born: 1958
Born: January 25
Author
Businessperson
Journalist
Writer
Boulder
Colorado
Greatness
Focus
Inconstancy
Right
Signature
Things
Signatures
Chronic
Disciplined
Mediocrity
Consistent

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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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Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.
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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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Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure.
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The essence of profound insight is simplicity.
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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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Profit is like oxygen, food, water, and blood for the body they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life.
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The most effective leaders of companies in transition are the quiet, unassuming people whose inner wiring is such that the worst circumstances bring out their best. They're unflappable, they're ready to die if they have to. But you can trust that, when bad things are happening, they will become clearheaded and focused.
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Don't take care of your career. Take care of your people. They will take care of your career.
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Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment.
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Change your practices without abandoning your core values.
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Managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great.
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To have a Welch-caliber C.E.O. is impressive.To have a century of Welch-Caliber C.E.O.'s all grown from the inside - well, that is one key reason why G.E. is a visionary company.
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In determing the right people, the good-to-great companies placed greater weight on character attributes than on specific educational background, practical skills, specialized knowledge, or work experience.
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Genuine confidence is what launches you out of bed in the morning, and through your day with a spring in your step.
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It took Einstein ten years of groping through the fog to get the theory of special relativity, and he was a bright guy.
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I am completely Socratic.
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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.
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If you have a charismatic cause you don't need to be a charismatic leader.
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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
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