Good To Great by Jim Collins

“Good is the enemy of great” — Jim Collins

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t

Jim Collins wrote Good to Great after success of the Build to Last. I haven’t read it yet, but it is one of the books I look forward to read.

I would recommend this book to anyone. Although it mostly concentrated for CEO’s of businesses, principles from this book can be applied to personal life, athletics, school, and everything else.

“It takes 7 years to become an overnight success.” Companies in the study spend from 3 to 25 years to go from good to great.

You will find that at one point in your life you have practiced some of the key principles that are behind going from good to great. After reading this book you will be aware of the them, and will be able to apply them on the project you work on.

Every concept from the book is important, but one of them stood out more then the rest

The Stockdale Paradox

Face the reality. Optimism is great, but life is not a movie. There is no happy ending guaranteed in the end. Pessimism kills your self esteem and will to fight for the better outcome.

The Stockdale Paradox combines two of these ideas into one. While you look toward the happy ending, you are aware of all the problems you are facing at the moment.

Example: You have two weeks before final, on the material you never seen,that will determine if you pass or fail class. Optimist will believe that he will pass the class. Pessimist believes there is no way for him pass it. The Stockdale Paradox says to believe you will pass the class, but realize you have to put a lot of work into preparing, or possibly take class again.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. If you are CEO or business owner buying this book may be your biggest investment with highest ROI.

Click here to get “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t” on Amazon

P.S. Let me know if you find this helpful, and if there is anything I could add, remove or change.