Focus, as Steve Jobs said, is about saying no.
The only dangerous competitors are focused ones.
Ergo there are things that even the most dangerous competitors say no to, and it would be worth thinking explicitly about what those are.
Achieving strategic clarity is hard. It takes asking tough questions about tradeoffs, deep concentration to get to the very essence of the issues and real courage to cut off competing priorities. It is worth the effort because with real clarity, people, teams and organizations can fully mobilize, break through to the next level and achieve... See more
One of my (many) contrarian beliefs is that we do not have strong enough preferences. We often blame social media or the speed of information as the reason why we’re easily distracted, but the real reason behind our inability to focus has less to do with the sheer quantity of media and more to do with our laziness when it comes to distinguishing... See more
Anyone can say no to crappy opportunities. Only a master will say no to good opportunities. If you don’t say no to good opportunities, you’ll never have the time to pursue great opportunities.
Saying no is hard. Nobody knew that better than Steve Jobs, who said:
People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not
Jony Ive on what Steve Jobs taught him about the power of focusing:
“Focus is not this thing you aspire to…or something you do on Monday. It’s something you do every minute.”
All of my startup experience summed up:
The right person with the precise right focus and completely unshackled is 10x as effective as 10 pretty smart people working hard in a vague general direction
When outcomes suffer, there's more and more pressure to identify the problem. There's more and more pressure to identify that single thing causing the problem. Finger-pointing increases. Scrutiny increases. Trust decreases. Transparency decreases. People become more territorial and more defensive.
As outcomes suffer, the team loses confidence in... See more