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Who really said it

Those who built the visionary companies wisely understood that it is better to understand who you are than where you are going, for where you are going will almost certainly change

Written by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras Jim Collins b. 1958 · business researcher & author; co-author Jerry I. Porras
Verified In copyright

Confirmed in the “Introduction to the Paperback Edition” of Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (HarperBusiness, 1st paperback ed., 1997), which Collins co-wrote with Jerry I. Porras. The original has an em dash where the popular version has a comma (“…than where you are going—for where you are going will almost certainly change”). The introduction was new to the paperback, so the line is not in the 1994 first edition.

Last verified 1 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Verified quote & credit

“Those who built the visionary companies wisely understood that it is better to understand who you are than where you are going, for where you are going will almost certainly change” Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras, Built to Last, Introduction to the Paperback Edition (HarperBusiness, 1997)

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras / HarperBusiness). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

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Provenance

Where the line appears

Work
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
Section
Introduction to the Paperback Edition
Edition
HarperBusiness, New York, 1st paperback edition, 1997
Authors
Jim Collins & Jerry I. Porras

People cannot reliably predict where they are going and how their lives will unfold, especially in today’s unpredictable world. Those who built the visionary companies wisely understood that it is better to understand who you are than where you are going—for where you are going will almost certainly change. It is a lesson as relevant to our individual lives as to aspiring visionary companies.

In the book this passage closes a discussion of readers who applied the book’s “preserve the core/stimulate progress” idea to their own lives. The next heading is “Ongoing Learning and Future Work.”

Built to Last, 1997 HarperBusiness paperback (Internet Archive record)

How we confirmed it

  • The Internet Archive’s catalog record for the 1997 HarperBusiness “1st pbk. ed.” notes that the “Paperback edition includes a new introduction and a new chapter by the authors” (Internet Archive ↗).
  • A full-text search of that scan returns the passage: “…you are going — for where you are going will almost certainly change. It is a lesson as…” (Internet Archive full-text search ↗).
  • Wikiquote’s sourced quotes for Jim Collins list the line under Built to Last, citing p. xx (Wikiquote ↗).
  • Collins and Porras had made the same point in their Harvard Business Review article “Building Your Company’s Vision” (HBR ↗). There it reads “more important to know who you are than where you are going” (reposted text ↗).
In copyright

The sentence was first published in the Introduction to the Paperback Edition of Built to Last (HarperBusiness, 1997). That is a modern work by living, identifiable authors, so it remains under U.S. copyright. Quoting a single sentence with attribution is ordinary fair-use practice.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

What the popular version gets wrong

The words are genuine. What the popular version gets wrong is the credit around them: it names one author when there were two, and it gives the wrong edition.

Jim Collins alone Half the byline

Built to Last is co-written by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras (Wikipedia ↗). The paperback introduction is signed by both authors. Quote sites such as Quotewise credit “James C. Collins” alone (Quotewise ↗).

“1994” Wrong edition

Quotewise dates the line to 1994, and Wikiquote files it under the book’s 1994 heading (Wikiquote ↗). But the passage sits in an introduction written for the paperback (Internet Archive ↗). That introduction opens by recalling that the authors shipped the final manuscript on March 14, 1994, and says “as we write this introduction to the paperback edition.” We searched the full text of the Internet Archive’s 1994 and 1995 scans of the book and did not find the passage.

The “know who you are” version Sibling sentence

A similar line, “more important to know who you are than where you are going,” comes from Collins and Porras’s 1996 Harvard Business Review article (reposted text ↗). A version of it also appears in the paperback’s new chapter, “Building the Vision.” It is the same authors restating the same idea, but it is a different sentence and should not be merged with this one.

It is genuine: Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras wrote it in the Introduction to the Paperback Edition of Built to Last (HarperBusiness, 1997) (Internet Archive ↗).

Context

Why the authors wrote it

Built to Last argues that long-lasting companies keep a fixed “core ideology” while changing everything else. The book’s name for this is “preserve the core/stimulate progress.” In the new introduction for the paperback, Collins and Porras reported that many readers had applied that idea to their own lives and to questions of identity and renewal.

The sentence is their conclusion to that discussion. The founders of the visionary companies anchored on identity rather than on destination, and the authors say the same lesson applies to individuals.

It is a lesson as relevant to our individual lives as to aspiring visionary companies.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Character Change Leadership Purpose

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Built to Last (1997 paperback) — catalog recordarchive.org

Catalog record for the HarperBusiness 1st paperback edition, noting the new introduction and new chapter.
Jim Collins — sourced quotesen.wikiquote.org

Lists this line among sourced Built to Last quotes, citing p. xx.
Building Your Company's Vision (1996)hbr.org

Collins and Porras's Harvard Business Review article, Sept–Oct 1996, which contains the sibling 'know who you are' sentence.
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companiesen.wikipedia.org

Background on the book and its two authors.
James C. Collinsen.wikipedia.org

Biography of Jim Collins.

Written by

About the authors

Jim Collins

b. 1958 · American business researcher, author & consultant

James C. “Jim” Collins (born January 25, 1958, in Aurora, Colorado) studied at Stanford and joined the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1988. He wrote Built to Last (1994) with his Stanford colleague Jerry I. Porras, and later wrote Good to Great (2001), How the Mighty Fall (2009) and Great by Choice (2011, with Morten T. Hansen).

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Collins, James C., and Jerry I. Porras. “Introduction to the Paperback Edition.” In Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. 1st paperback ed. New York: HarperBusiness, 1997.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Those who built the visionary companies wisely understood that it is better to understand who you are than where you are going, for where you are going will almost certainly change’?” Last verified 1 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/those-who-built-the-visionary-companies-wisely-understood/

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