Climbing (and Not Falling) With Jim Collins

Kevin Maney takes an interesting first-person angle in his Fortune profile My death-defying climb with Jim Collins. The latter is now promoting his new book How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In. He is one of the best-selling business authors of recent times, especially for the multi-million selling Good to Great. Although he’s known for his writing, teaching and painstaking, number-crunching research, a major part of his life is rock climbing. For the profile, Maney — who had never climbed before — climbs with Collins the 1,000 foot First Flatiron rock face in Colorado, near Collins’ home. The article is an intriguing combination of Maney’s observations of his experience on the climb, and a portrait of what makes Collins tick. He also talks to Joanne, Collins’ wife of 29 years, as well as Collins’ research partner Morten Hansen and Collins’ climbing coach Tommy Caldwell, whom Maney calls “the Tiger Woods of rock climbing.” Maney’s profile draws out some keen insights into Collins’ thoughts and actions that can act as a guide for others. “The guy is the J.K. Rowling of management literature,” Maney writes, “and he suffers from self-doubt like the rest of us.” Maney notes that driven people are prone to insecurity and happiness can breed complacency. And we know where that can lead. Collins helps conquer complacency and the fear of failure by being super-prepared and diving into the minutiae of research, whether it’s for his books or preparing for a big climb. Kevin Maney and I were colleagues in our USA TODAY days. His third book, Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On and Others Don’t, will be published in September. Like Collins, Maney is well-rounded. While Collins climbs rocks, Maney is a rock musician when he’s not writing. Check out some of his songs on his website.