Episode · The Daily Stoic · 2026-04-11
Books mentioned on What To Do When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned | Jim Collins
What if the hardest moments in your life aren’t detours but the very things that put you on the right path? In Part 2, bestselling author Jim Collins explains why the moments that derail you are often the ones that redirect you.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
Good to Great
Good to Great is a widely read business and management book that investigates what makes certain companies successfully transition to sustained greatness while others fail.
Discussed“Good to great, which will forever be something that, you know, completely changed my life. In some ways, it was hard to manage...”
Where to get it
-
How the Mighty Fall
Jim Collins’s insightful business book, How the Mighty Fall, examines the predictable stages of corporate decline and why even the most successful companies eventually fail.
Discussed“I thought that was one of the interesting things in in the beginning of the book where you're talking about how, you know, on on good to great or or how the mighty fall, you know, you're able to to measure pretty objectively...”
Where to get it
-
What to Make of a Life
Discussed“And I actually I said, I have a copy of the galley of his new book on my desk, which I didn't bring on this trip cuz I didn't have room in my suitcase, but I I need to read it cuz I'm about to interview him.”
Where to get it
-
In Love and War
Discussed“I first of all sat down and read and I read his book uh which he wrote in alternating chapters with his wife uh called in love and war...”
Where to get it
-
The Guns of August
Discussed“And and then, uh, she ends up writing this book, The Guns of August. And one of my favorite little stories in there is about how, you know, the series of sort of chances.”
Where to get it
-
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius's Meditations is a foundational work of Stoic philosophy that records the personal reflections and spiritual exercises of the Roman emperor.
Discussed“One of the fundamental ironies of of Marcus Reis's meditations is you're reading uh a book that is still a bestseller 2,000 years after it was written...”
Where to get it
-
The Great Influenza
The Great Influenza by John M.
Discussed“Another great example of this is is the book The Great Influenza by John M. Barry. He becomes fascinated with the the the Spanish flu and he writes this book about it that George W. Bush reads...”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“She had just read my book, The Obstacles Away, if I would fly out to Maui to talk about it for this episode she was doing.”