“Bill [Lazier] would always remind our students, the most important thing is to do work you love, with people you love. And if you do work you love, with people you love, you win.”
Jim Collins is an entrepreneurial researcher, however he’s most well known for being a best selling author of multiple books that frankly, if you're listening to this podcast and you haven't read, you've definitely got your priorities all wrong.
We celebrate all things entrepreneur on Secret Leaders, having been in the game for almost 10 years ourselves. And one of the first books we ever read, as every budding, new or even seasoned entrepreneur should, was Good To Great. The timeless, classic, entrepreneurial handbook written by two experts.
Jim’s latest book, Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0, a revamped and updated version of the original, is an homage to his co-author and late mentor, the inimitable Bob Lazier.
“I asked Bill one day, I said, ‘So what makes a great relationship?’ He says, ‘oh, if you ask each person in the relationship, who benefits more from the relationship, they each independently would say, I do’.”
Jim, by his own definition, is not normal. But then, we argue, what exceptional leader of industry is? That's why we invite people like him onto this show, so listeners can learn all about them.
And this episode is one of the best. Jam packed full of tasty tidbits and inspiration, you should have your pen ready, because this is bound to fire up your neurons and get your thinking juices flowing.
“Leadership is a responsibility not an entitlement, or decision, not an accident, a matter of willful action, not genetics, whether you learn to lead greatly in the end, is a choice.”
We chat about:
- Bill Lazier
- Writing Good to Great in the spirit of relationships
- Level five leaders
- The myth of the entrepreneurial temperament
- His encounters with Steve Jobs
- The Stockdale paradox
- Why Patagonia is such a great company
Links:
- Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck - Why Some Thrive Despite Them All
- Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0
- Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great
- Turning Goals into Results: The Power of Catalytic Mechanisms
- Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
--
Sponsors
Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders
Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders
Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders
--
Newsletter
Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/
You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes