Focus
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of participating in an Alumni Panel for this year’s Next 36 Selection Weekend.
Together with fellow Next 36 / Next Founders alumni Jaclyn Ling, Michael Helander and Jessica Ching, we talked about our experiences in the program and building our companies (side note: they are all working on very interesting things, and worth checking out).
Near the end of the Q&A, one of the finalists asked:
What is the most important thing you learned from this experience?
Without hesitation, for me it was focus.
I have come to believe focus is incredibly important, not just for startups, but for pursuing anything meaningful in life.
The basic truth is that it’s hard enough to do one thing very well. It therefore follows that it’s impossible to do many things well.
From a startup point of view, this means putting 100% of our energy into increasingly fewer items, across all facets of the company. We moved from providing a solution for any medical condition to focusing exclusively on surgery. We dramatically reduced the number of metrics we focus on. And so on.
Today, we relentlessly say “No” to anything that does not move the dial on the few items that matter. This is important because most opportunities you encounter will be distractions.
Sometimes distractions are less obvious. Coffee meetings with kind, well-intentioned people but no obvious relevance. Networking events in your industry. Product features that only one customer is asking for. A good barometer for whether an event was a distraction was whether you regretted it after. Over time, you will gather enough data points to know what is and isn’t a distraction for you.
Your time is valuable – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s okay to say “No”! If you’re saying “Yes” more often than “No”, it might be worth re-thinking whether you are focused enough.
And this goes beyond startups, at least for me. I am much happier focusing my time on close family and friends who matter the most to me. They deserve 100% of my attention.
The one exception I do make is around giving back and helping others. I never consider that a distraction, even if it is irrelevant to items I’m supposed to focus on. I will quickly say “No” to a coffee meeting about help I don’t want, but I will happily take coffee with someone who really needs help.
The most successful people I know are also the most generous with their time. I want to believe that isn’t a coincidence. When I consider some of the insanely busy people who give me time when they have no reason to, I can’t help but feel grateful, and want to pay it forward. It’s also very rewarding to see other people you’ve helped do well.
Otherwise, I’m going to keep my head down and focus on the few things that matter. And I expect that list to get shorter, but more ambitious, with time.