Reviewed by Taylor Larsen

Moving from good to great… everyone wants that, right? If you are a business leader trying to take your business from… you guessed it, good to great, then you need to do like freelance writer Taylor Larsen and read Jim Collins’ famous book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't.

“Competence is a curse,” laughs Taylor. “Just because you’ve been doing something for years or even decades doesn’t mean you are the best at it.” Companies must find their core business idea, be the best at it, and grow from there.

Taylor loved the timeless concepts about leadership in Collins’ book: Relying on principles rather than charisma, channeling ambition into the company versus channeling work ambition into the self, and being modest instead of boastful are great concepts for people in management. Taylor’s takeaway? “These aren’t trade secrets. Principles like these are learnable and improvable.”

“We’ve got to be willing to look under the rocks like Collins talks about,” says Taylor. “When I was working in social services, I had to be willing to follow best practices and move on from outdated methods of helping people. This book definitely encourages me to look for facts over dreams or even what we hope is true.”

Taylor Larsen is a freelance writer in Salt Lake City, Utah.