I just finished Great by Choice again. Man, I love that book.

And I love listening to Jim Collin’s read it.

Wow.

It’s a business book.

And yet a few times, some of the stories in it moved me to tears.

What qualities do you need to become a great company? A great organization? A great club?

It’s simple:

• Fanatical Discipline.
• Empirical Creativity.
• And Productive Paranoia.

The great companies were led by people that weren’t self-aggrandizing.

The leaders made sure that they had good people.

And they followed tactics that worked.

They built things.

You can take some of those qualities an improve any endeavour you’re involved in.

Fanatical Discipline is represented by finding your “20 Mile March”. That thing that you can do consistently that moves you closer to your goal. Maybe it’s committing to writing a page a day. Or making 10 cold calls a day.

Empirical Creativity is represented by “fire bullets then fire canon balls”. You don’t put all your eggs in one basket on a whim. You conduct mini-experiments and try different things. See which things get a little traction. And then we you have proof that it’s working, go big. Fire your canon ball.

Productive Paranoia is represented by “leading above the death line”. Build up your stores. Either in terms of money or energy or whatever resources you depend on. Always assume that something bad could happen, so be prepared. Be prepared with more than the bare minimum. Something always goes wrong.

Each of these ideas are clarified with examples from the business world and the real world.

For me, my 20 Mile March could be to write a page a day.

My Fire Bullets then Canon Balls could be having some readings. From different plays in progress and see which one gets the best reaction. Then I can put more focus on that play.

My Leading above the Death Line would be to keep my day job. Until I could live off royalties. (Which isn’t likely to happen. But you never know…)