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Comparison, a great teacher once told me, is the cardinal sin of modern life. It traps us in a game that we can't win. Once we define ourselves in terms of others, we lose the freedom to shape our own lives.

James C. Collins

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James C. Collins
Age: 66
Born: 1958
Born: January 25
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More quotes by James C. Collins

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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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By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average.
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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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An organization is not truly great, if it cannot be great without you.
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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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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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A visionary company doesn't simply balance between idealism and profitability: it seeks to be highly idealistic and highly profitable. 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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In a world of constant change, the fundamentals are more important than ever.
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I've never found an important decision made by a great organization that was made at a point of unanimity. Significant decisions carry risks and inevitably some will oppose it. In these settings, the great legislative leader must be artful in handling uncomfortable decisions, and this requires rigor.
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Discipline should amplify creativity rather than stifle it.
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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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The critical question is not whether you'll have luck, but what you do with the luck that you get.
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Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure.
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How can you succeed by helping others succeed? We succeed at our very best only when we help others succeed.
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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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The greatest leaders build organizations that, in the end, don't need them.
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Not one of the good-to-great companies focused obsessively on growth.
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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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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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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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