Focusing is about saying no

While having my after-lunch espresso I opened up YouTube and I saw this video recommended to me:

After watching this short video I couldn't agree more. It's actually something that I've been trying to get better at over the last couple of years, and with great success. But it is hard to do well. Really hard.

I can still remember when I first started out as a marketing consultant more than a decade ago. You need a website? Sure! Flyers to hand out to customers? You got it! Ad campaign? I'm on it! Hosting for your website? I can fix that!

And although I learned a lot from doing so many different things, a clear focus will get you way further.

Just a couple of weeks ago I stopped myself from watering down my focus yet again. I had a new project ready for a new market. Everything was planned and the opportunity was definitely there... but I felt it wasn't worth the disctraction from my main project.

So next time an opportunity presents itself, default to saying 'no' first. After that you can consider coming up with arguments why you should do it. And don't forget to think about the opportunity cost.

If you want to read more about finding focus, I recommend reading about Warren Buffett's "2 list" strategy. It's a very interesting read.