Great by Choice

I finished Jim Collins' latest book Great by Choice and really enjoyed it. Collins is one of the authors whom I will read almost anything he produces and he also backs up his writing with lots of data and research- right up my alley. Here are some of my favorites quotes:

• On the one hand, 10Xers (leaders who led at companies who did 10 times better than their comparison competition during the same time period; Southwest vs. PSA, in the airline industry, for instance) understand that they face continuous uncertainty and that they cannot control, and cannot accurately predict, significant aspects of the world around them. On the other hand, 10Xers reject the idea that forces outside their control or chance events will determine their results; they accept full responsibility for their fate (19).


• The environment doesn’t determine why some companies thrive in chaos and why others don’t. People do. People are disciplined fanatics. People are empirical. People are creative. People are productively paranoid. People lead. People build teams. People build organizations. People build cultures. People exemplify values, pursue purpose, and achieve big hairy audacious goals. Of all the luck we can get, people luck- the luck of finding the right mentor, teammate, leader, friend, is one of the most important (161).


• The difference between Bill Gates and similarly advantaged people is not luck. Yes, Gates was lucky to be born at the right time, but many others had this luck. And yes, Gates was lucky to have the chance to learn programming by 1975, but many others had this same luck. Gates did more with his luck, taking a confluence of lucky circumstances and creating a huge return on his luck. And this is the important difference (163).

Sometimes we're tempted to blame our misfortune and other's good fortune on luck. Most of the time, though, there's a whole lot of effort and energy and work (or lack thereof) behind those fortunes.