25 Jim Collins Quotes About Building and Managing a Business

By Stephanie Kirby | Published August 2, 2023

If you are a manager or an entrepreneur, these Jim Collins quotes are perfect for you.

Jim Collins is a speaker and consultant who focuses on helping others manage their businesses to achieve growth and sustainability.

Collins was born in Aurora, Colorado, in 1958.

He attended college at Stanford University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1980.

After spending a year and a half at a law firm, he returned to Stanford and earned an MBA in business.

After spending time as his wife’s manager for her triathlon career, he joined the faculty at Stanford.

He then published his first book in 1992 called Beyond Entrepreneurship: Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company.

Take a look at these Jim Collins quotes to learn more about the business management expert.

The Best Jim Collins Quotes

Take a look at some of the best Jim Collins quotes.

1. “Discipline is consistency of action.” — Jim Collins

2. “Don’t be interesting – be interested.” — Jim Collins

3. “The essence of profound insight is simplicity.” — Jim Collins

4. “You need self-control in an out-of-control world.” — Jim Collins

5. “Don’t take care of your career. Take care of your people.” — Jim Collins

6. “Change your practices without abandoning your core values.” — Jim Collins

7. “We succeed at our very best only when we help others succeed.” — Jim Collins

8. “If you have more than three priorities, then you don’t have any.” — Jim Collins

9. “First figure out your partners, then figure out what ideas to pursue.” — Jim Collins

10. “True leadership has people who follow when they have the freedom not to.” — Jim Collins

Thought-Provoking Jim Collins Quotes

Check out these thought-provoking Jim Collins quotes.

11. “Bad decisions made with good intentions are still bad decisions.” — Jim Collins

12. “In business, real discipline comes in saying no to the wrong opportunities.” — Jim Collins

13. “Your goals don’t have to be quantifiable, but they do have to be describable.” — Jim Collins

14. “Companies that change best over time know first and foremost what should not change.” — Jim Collins

15. “The drive for progress doesn’t wait for the external world to say ‘It’s time to change.’” — Jim Collins

16. “Take advantage of difficult economic times to hire great people, even if you don’t have a specific job in mind.” — Jim Collins

17. “Just because a company falls doesn’t invalidate what we can learn by studying that company when it was at its historical best.” — Jim Collins

Jim Collins Quotes About Business

These are Jim Collins quotes about business.

18. “A magazine is simply a device to induce people to read advertising.” — Jim Collins

19. “Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, humble and fearless.” — Jim Collins

20. “Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment.” — Jim Collins

21. “Whether you prevail or fail depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.” — Jim Collins

22. “Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company.” — Jim Collins

23. “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.” — Jim Collins

24. “The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline–a problem that largely goes away if you have the right people in the first place.” — Jim Collins

25. “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.” — Jim Collins