What sparked the idea was a challenge from one of his advisers to consider what he would do if he received two life-changing phone calls. In the first call, he’d learn that he’d inherited $20 million, no strings attached. The second call would inform him that, due to a rare and incurable disease, he had only 10 years left to live. The adviser asked Collins, “What would you do differently, and, in particular, what would you stop doing?” Since that time, Collins said, he has prepared a “stop-doing” list every year.
