Leadership Lessons from "Collateral"

Monday Security Memo

Intellectual Firepower for Professionals

Leadership Lessons from "Collateral"

“Someday? Someday my dream will come? One night you’ll wake up and discover it never happened.”

— Vincent, Collateral

Dear A,

One of the most uncomfortable leadership lessons in film happens in the back seat of a taxi in 2004's, Collateral. Tom Cruise’s character, Vincent, isn’t a hero (he's a ruthless hitman), but he is brutally honest.

When Max, the taxi driver, explains his dream of owning a limousine business, Vincent isn’t impressed. Max has the name, the vision, the story. He’s been thinking about it for years. Vincent cuts through the fantasy with a single truth: owning a limo company doesn’t require a dream... it requires a lease. A Lincoln Town Car. Paperwork. Action.

That’s the difference between them.

Max isn’t incapable. He’s cautious, comfortable, and waiting for the “right time.” Vincent calls him out: you’ll never do it - not because you can’t, but because you won’t. And that line lands because it’s true for far more people than we care to admit.

Most people don’t fail because their goals are unrealistic. They fail because they never operationalize them. They confuse intention with progress and planning with movement. They romanticize the future while tolerating the present.

Dreamers talk in years. Doers act in days.

Tom Cruise's hitman character reminds Jamie Foxx's cabdriver that if he hasn't acted on his dream by now, he never will. He is simply destined to grow old in his "Barcalounger", hypnotized by daytime TV, wondering where his dream went.

Leasing the car doesn’t guarantee success, but it forces commitment. It creates momentum. It turns a dream into a decision. Action clarifies. Waiting never does.

This lesson applies far beyond business. Careers stall. Leadership potential fades. Personal goals rot on the vine, all because action keeps getting delayed in favor of “someday.”

Collateral exposes an uncomfortable truth: the gap between where you are and where you want to be is rarely talent or intelligence - it’s execution.

At some point, the dream has to leave the back seat. If it doesn’t it was never a plan to begin with.

Stay safe and vigilant!

Luke Bencie