The Slowest Hiker

"People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things."

- Steve Jobs

I recently read a fantastic book by Greg McKeown, titled "Essentialism- The Disciplined Pursuit of Less."

Wow! It was so good I asked one of my Mastermind Groups to read it and gave each of them a chapter to do a deep dive and prepare a presentation on it for the group. We all met here in Western New York at one of the members houses on the Niagara River. It turned out to be a great retreat.

Two things that really stood out was the mantra "Less but Better", and the story of the slowest hiker.

We have all believed (yes one of those false beliefs, the lies that hold us back) that in business and in life more is better. But when you look at highly successful people and businesses you find that "less but better" is really the key.

Steve Jobs was always saying no and focusing on less but better. Seth Godin says, "if you want to be the best in the world make your world smaller." Steve Chandler touts, "winners focus, losers spray." The list goes on and on.

Learning to say "no" is critical to living a life of essentialism. As Greg says, "saying no may be uncomfortable for a few minutes or hours, but saying yes can nag you for weeks, months and even years."

Identify each day what is truly essential to get done and then focus on those few things with a laser focus. To do that you have to begin to say no, in a nice way, to the non-essential things in your life and business.

The Slowest Hiker
The slowest hiker story is a classic in regard to how to improve the efficiency in any part of a business or your life.

A scout troop is going on a hike. It is 10 miles to the campsite and the scout master is in charge of getting all the boys to the camp before sunset. They start out and of course some of the scouts are moving faster than others. Soon there is a huge gap between the slow and faster scouts. One boy, Herbie, is really behind everyone and the scout master cannot keep an eye on everyone because they are so strung out.

So he stops the faster scouts and has them wait for the others and then on Herbie. Now they are all together but of course within minutes the problem is recreated.

So he puts Herbie in the lead and all the others behind him. Problem fixed - right? No. Now they will never reach camp before sunset. So he decides Herbie is the key, so he takes all the stuff out of Herbie's pack and distributes it amongst the troup. Herbie can now move fast enough to get to camp by sunset but not faster than the others, and thus leads the group into camp on time.

Morale of the story - identify the constraint and then focus on eliminating it. Too often we simply go at things without thinking it through and identifying the true constraint. We usually move with great speed to do more, we try all sorts of band aids and sometimes make matters worse.

Slow down, say no to the non- essential, find the Herbies (constraints) in your business and do LESS BUT BETTER.

All the best,
Rick Wallace