The Desert of Arizona
Partly Cloudy 61 Degrees
I mentioned the book, Essentialism, a few weeks ago. It’s a good book. And the mantra of “the disciplined pursuit of less” sounds sexy, I’ll admit. But what does “the disciplined pursuit of less” actually mean?
Well, I’ll tell you what it means to me.
I have a running joke with a friend of mine who I talk with a lot about business and life. The fist part of the joke, that I mentioned to him a few days ago, is that we’ve spent about the last 10 years realizing how many things in business DON’T matter. We’ve basically been on a steady path to do less and do it far better.
The other part of the joke is when I compare myself to Apple®.
Now Apple® is a huge company with about $182 billion in revenue last year. They make about 4 different types of products. Computers, phones, tablets and watches. They have about 98,000 full-time employees to make four different types of products. FOUR.
I’m a one person company. That’s how I want it and that’s not going to change. The idea that I could do more than one thing in a way that will make any real impact is kind of delusional.
That’s why, if you’ve been in my universe for any length of time, you’ve seen the distillation and focusing process performed right out in the open.
Take a look at all of the trainings in the training library (login info below this letter). I used to sell all of those things. Do you know how much time, effort and focus it requires to try to sell 15 different products?
It’s not possible to do it well as one individual. Oops.
You simply can’t be “best” at anything when you’re doing so many different things.
So I decided to make a commitment.
I really only offer three things on a regular basis. And these things are really all the same core value offered a different price points and levels of engagement with me. They all work to create Incomparable Experts. That’s the GOAL.
That’s it. And that might be too many, but it’s a start.
The average advice is not to put all of your eggs in one basket. If you let fear run the show, that makes total sense. But if you separate all of your eggs into different baskets, none of your baskets is going to end up being very valuable. None of them will be special.
Are you focused or are you lacking focus?
Focus brings impact, no focus brings little to no impact.
A light with extreme focus becomes a laser.
A light with no focus becomes a lamp.
Which one can eat through a piece of steel?
It’s not the lamp…