Leading with Focus

I have a friend who used to own a chain of stores. The particular industry doesn’t matter because what happened to him can happen in any industry. It’s a short story about how quickly the thing you love can fade away if you lose focus.

There was once a time when passengers would land at a nearby airport and airline employees would encourage them to visit my friend’s stores. “You must go while you’re in town. Please don’t leave without visiting that store.” These are the kind of things they would say. Unprovoked. Unasked. Strangers would tell other strangers how great the experienced was. And so the stores grew and grew and grew.

But something happened along the way. Something that happens often when you get successful at one thing. A second “thing” appeared. An opportunity to explore a new industry appeared on the horizon. It looked good, it might have even looked great, but it cost something very, very expensive.

It cost focus.

In order to try the second thing, my friend and his family had to take their eyes off their first thing. They had to divide their attention and shift their focus. In the process of doing that, something was lost. Momentum died. The stores that strangers used to shout from the rooftops lost some of the shine. A few short years later, they fell on hard competition and a tough economy. They were forced to sell their stores.

The business applications are easy.

If you lose focus, if you get distracted, your business will suffer.

But I think there are family implications as well. I think the same principle holds true in marriages. When you get distracted by work, or emails, or outside commitments and take your eyes of growing your marriage, things suffer. When you lose focus on your friendships or your family, things don’t shine nearly as bright as they could.

It’s easy to get distracted these days. There are so many fun opportunities for us to chase.

But remember, when you find a new one to say “yes” to, you’re also saying “no” in some ways to one you’ve already committed to.

And focus is a very expensive thing to lose.

This post is categorized Lead and tagged focus, Lead