A new interview has just dropped with author of I AM LEADER, Chris Collins, courtesy of Vents Magazine.
Chris “Bulldog” Collins has spent over 30 years turning broken businesses into thriving success stories. Known as “the fixer,” he’s built his name on straight talk, radical accountability, and a no-BS approach that cuts through complacency and delivers real results. But Collins knows that real leadership goes beyond tactics. In his latest book, I Am Leader, he delivers a wake-up call to those stuck in outdated paradigms—offering a blueprint for internal transformation that begins with the individual behind the title. Because the truth is, most businesses don’t fail from bad ideas. They fail when leaders haven’t done the inner work. Below we dive deeper with Chris into his leadership philosophy and why personal transformation is the missing link in today’s leadership crisis.
You’re known for rejecting traditional leadership models and “torching convention.” What’s the most outdated piece of leadership advice that people still follow, and why is it dangerous?
A lot of people see leadership as an external thing. But leadership really is internal. It starts with the person. And what lot of people are doing wrong is they confuse authority—like positions of authority and titles—as leadership. But in my experience of fixing thousands of businesses, I can count on one hand how many leaders I’ve actually interacted with. A lot of people that are CEOs or general managers or even entrepreneurs are not leaders. They’re people managing a system or a process that was created by somebody else. And that isn’t really leadership—that’s just management. So, most people confuse management for leadership.
Many leadership books focus on abstract principles or generic advice, but your book I Am Leader promises a transformational experience that “anoints” and “empowers” the reader. What makes your approach so drastically different from traditional leadership training?
There’s this thing that maybe you’ve noticed, which is that people attract like-minded people. You tend to attract people that share your beliefs and your perspective. But leadership insinuates that there’s a mission you’re trying to accomplish, and you’re leading people to that mission. And attracting people with your same beliefs is usually a hindrance to that. The idea with I Am Leader is that it’s two different books. First, we’re addressing the individual and getting our house in order. And then we’re talking about leadership. So, we first shed those biases and beliefs and can then talk about real, effective leadership, which is more in line with what it takes to accomplish the mission, versus what our personal biases or preferences are. It’s more about understanding how to attract the people that actually make the mission successful versus just people we like or feel comfortable with.
Do you feel leaders are born or are made?
It can be both. But even the ones that are born are still made and mentored. If you go all the way back to Alexander the Great, maybe he was born a natural leader, but his father spent a lot of effort mentoring and grooming him to be the leader. It was the same thing with JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. They all had incredible fathers that taught them and put them in situations where they could be mentored. Just look at the next Alexander the Great—Elon Musk’s son, X. Elon takes him everywhere. That kid has access. He’s hanging out with the president. He’s hanging out with world leaders. And Elon is clearly grooming him to be a leader someday, and to understand what that is at a very young age to try to give him an advantage. But most leaders, even if they’re born that way, are groomed and trained in some way.
Transformation is a key theme in your philosophy. What are some of the biggest internal shifts a reader might experience as they apply the principles of I Am Leader?
The biggest one is locus of control. Locus of control is where you attribute control. Is it external? Do you believe that success is achieved by fate or luck or the government? Or is it inside of you and based more on your work ethic, how you show up, or your charisma? Is it external or is it internal? This goes hand-in-hand with personal responsibility. To be a really effective leader, you have to take responsibility and own the outcome, good or bad. And if it’s bad, you have to use it as a learning experience to change your perspective or your actions—or whatever it is that got you into that situation. So, the biggest transformation and the thing that this world lacks more than anything else is personal responsibility in leadership positions. We see that in politics, we see that with CEOs of companies. It’s never their fault when things don’t go right—they always externalize and blame to something else. But that isn’t leadership.
If someone is struggling with self-doubt or imposter syndrome, where in I Am Leader should they begin to shift their mindset?
Action. Self-esteem comes from accomplishment. And accomplishment comes from putting yourself out there and working on yourself—putting yourself in situations where you can learn and get better. That’s what raises self-esteem. And if you feel imposter syndrome, usually that’s because you’re not doing anything. You’re sitting around “feeling.” Well, get busy and distract yourself. It’s that old saying, “Man who rows can’t rock the boat.” Well, get busy rowing the boat and start learning and getting better—and that will fix that.
You’ve built a reputation as “the fixer” for transforming struggling businesses into powerhouses. What’s the most unexpected or counterintuitive lesson you’ve learned about leadership through that process?
You really have to focus on the outcomes. Don’t listen to what people say. Pay attention to what they actually do. Because the real story is in the outcome or what they do, not and what they say.
What do you think is broken in today’s leadership landscape, and how can it be fixed?
An easy example is, I live in Los Angeles, California. Look at the amount we pay in taxes and how the state is running in a deficit. You know, we had somebody try to break into our building here and the security company called the police who didn’t even come. We live in in a world where we accept subpar results. We’re conditioned [to think] that it’s okay, because the leaders have everyone distracted and worried about things that have nothing to do with the basic function of government. And it’s also true when you talk about ordering products. How often do you buy a product and it isn’t what it was advertised to be or it doesn’t work, and then you have to send it back? Nobody takes responsibility for their actions. It’s very rare that you meet a person in a position of authority or power that actually owns the results for their actions. And that wasn’t the case 50 years ago.
If someone could take only one lesson from the I Am Leader book set, what would you hope it would be?
Studies show that people with an internal locus of control are more successful in life. They’re higher in status, more authentic, and live happier lives. They’re not prone to depression or the struggle of belonging or fitting in. Understanding and developing an internal locus of control is the biggest game changer. I don’t know why they don’t teach it in school, in prisons, or in corporate America. It’s the missing link. Just about everything that’s happening right now is due to a lack of people actually owning and taking responsibility for the scope of whatever it is they’re doing.
https://ventsmagazine.com/2025/04/15/chris-bulldog-collins-disrupt-dismantle-lead/