Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All

by Jim Collins

Contrary finding: The best leaders we studied did not have a visionary ability to predict the future. They observed what worked, figured out why it worked, and built upon proven foundations. They were not more risk taking, more bold, more visionary, and more creative than the comparisons. They were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid.

Innovation by itself turns out not to be the trump card we expected; more important is the ability to scale innovation, to blend creativity with discipline.

“Victory awaits him who has everything in order—luck people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.” —Roald Amundsen, The South Pole1

On the one hand, 10Xers 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 own fate.

Discipline, in essence, is consistency of action—consistency with values, consistency with long-term goals, consistency with performance standards, consistency of method, consistency over time.

The 20 Mile March is more than a philosophy. It’s about having concrete, clear, intelligent, and rigorously pursued performance mechanisms that keep you on track. The 20 Mile March creates two types of self-imposed discomfort: (1) the discomfort of unwavering commitment to high performance in difficult conditions, and (2) the discomfort of holding back in good conditions.

Don’t even think about playing a blame game when students aren’t learning. Have the strength to look at the problem and take responsibility.

“You may not find what you were looking for, but you find something else equally important.” —Robert Noyce1

John Brown at Stryker lived by the mantra that it’s best to be “one fad behind,” never first to market, but never last.

Internet. They found that only 9 percent of pioneers end up as the final winners in a market.

fire bullets, then fire cannonballs.

firing an uncalibrated cannonball that succeeds, generating a huge windfall, can be even more dangerous than a failed cannonball.

Keep in mind the danger of achieving good outcomes from bad process. Good process doesn’t guarantee good outcomes, and bad process doesn’t guarantee bad outcomes, but good outcomes with bad process—firing uncalibrated cannonballs that just happen to succeed—reinforces bad process and can lead to firing more uncalibrated cannonballs.

But they view mistakes as expensive tuition: better get something out of it, learn everything you can, apply the learning, and don’t repeat.

Be creative, but validate your creative ideas with empirical experience.

Jobs didn’t first go after the Next Big Thing, but instead he made the most of the Big Thing he already had.

the only mistakes you can learn from are the ones you survive.

“Most men die of their remedies, and not of their illnesses.” —Molière1

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.”

the signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change; the signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.

“If we were replaced and new management came in, what would they do?”20 Moore thought about it for a moment, then answered, “Get out of DRAMS.” “So,” said Grove, “let’s go through the revolving door, come back in, shut down the memory business, and just do it ourselves.”

“One should…be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald1

The greatest leaders we’ve studied throughout all our research cared as much about values as victory, as much about purpose as profit, as much about being useful as being successful. Their drive and standards are ultimately internal, rising from somewhere deep inside.

We are not imprisoned by our circumstances. We are not imprisoned by the luck we get or the inherent unfairness of life. We are not imprisoned by crushing setbacks, self-inflicted mistakes or our past success. We are not imprisoned by the times in which we live, by the number of hours in a day or even the number of hours we’re granted in our very short lives. In the end, we can control only a tiny sliver of what happens to us. But even so, we are free to choose, free to become great by choice.