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Most businesses -— like most of anything else in life -— fall somewhere between mediocre and good. Few are great. When you compare great companies with good ones, many widely practiced business norms turn out to correlate with mediocrity, not greatness. So, then, why would we want to import the practices of mediocrity into the social sectors?

— James C. Collins

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More quotes by James C. Collins

A culture of discipline is not a principle of business, it is a principle of greatness.

It is better to first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats, and then figure out where to drive.

For no matter what we achieve, if we don't spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect, we cannot possibly have a great life.

Highlighted section cited in: Lisa Marshall (2004)

Good is the enemy of great. That good is the enemy of great is not just a business problem. It is a human problem

Those who built the visionary companies wisely understood that it is better to understand who you are than where you are going — for where you are going will almost certainly change

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James C. Collins (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.