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The x factor of a great leader is humility combined with will.

James C. Collins

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James C. Collins
Age: 66
Born: 1958
Born: January 25
Author
Businessperson
Journalist
Writer
Boulder
Colorado
Combined
Factor
Factors
Humility
Leader
Great

More quotes by James C. Collins

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We must reject the idea... Well-intentioned, but dead wrong... That the primary path to greatness in the social sectors is to become more like a business. Most businesses... Like most of anything else in life... Fall somewhere between mediocre and good.
James C. Collins
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We are not imprisoned by circumstances, setbacks, mistakes or staggering defeats, we are freed by our choices.
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
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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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Managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great.
James C. Collins
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Smart people instinctively understand the dangers of entrusting our future to self-serving leaders who use our institutions, whether in the corporate or social sectors, to advance their own interests.
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.
James C. Collins
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The essence of profound insight is simplicity.
James C. Collins
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Those fortunate enough to find or create a practical intersection of the three circles have the basis for a great work life.
James C. Collins
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If you have a charismatic cause you don't need to be a charismatic leader.
James C. Collins
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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.
James C. Collins
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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.
James C. Collins
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The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is inconsistency.
James C. Collins
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If we allow the celebrity rock-star model of leadership to triumph, we will see the decline of corporations and institutions of all types. The twentieth century was a century of greatness, but we face the very real prospect that the next century will see very few enduring great institutions.
James C. Collins
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Change your practices without abandoning your core values.
James C. Collins
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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.
James C. Collins
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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.
James C. Collins
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Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, humble and fearless.
James C. Collins
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Companies that change best over time know first and foremost what should not change.
James C. Collins
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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.
James C. Collins