Simplicity Wins

by ANNIE on May 12, 2010

Simplicity moves you forward

Fact: When business is complicated and activity unfocused, growth does not occur. When business is simple, focused, and to-the-point, it grows.

I know that makes succeeding in business sound like it’s easy, or that it should be easy. It’s not. Succeeding in business – succeeding in any area of life – is hard. But it doesn’t need to be complicated. See the difference?

Whenever I hit a rough patch with a project and find myself frustrated, I tend to step back to take a look at the situation from a higher level. The vast majority of the time I find that things are getting frustrating because I’m making them too complicated. In fact, I’d venture to say that complication is ALWAYS the reason why I’ve fallen off track. Be it the track of bringing in new business, the track of sharing a product, the track of keeping up with my reading, whatever.

Back-up, review what’s really important, identify your main purpose, and then do it. Don’t let your core purpose (sharing a product, producing content in your niche, providing a specific value, etc) get lost in the shuffle of paperwork and busy schedules or the distractions of technology and trends and well-I-should-be’s.

Are you so busy building your business that you’re not able to build your business?

Don’t over-complicate. Keep things simple. Keep honed-in on your core purpose. Aren’t able to focus the majority of your time on that simple purpose anymore? Too much other “stuff” that has to be taken care of? Too many bumps in the road keeping you from smoothly moving forward? Then maybe a few things need to change.

Consider it.

Your thoughts? How do you keep your focus on your core purpose when life and admin threaten to get in the way?

  • I go exercise and when I am done with a long bike ride I am right back on focus and purpose. Exercise for me is where I work it all out by having talks with myself.

    I see way too many people hitting bumps in the road and it totally derails them. Stay focused on your core purpose and the things you love to do and you can get through anything.
  • Love the exercise resolution, Tyler!
  • I'm a big fan of Occam's Razor. Or Dieter Ram's 10 commandments of good design:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Rams#Dieter_Rams.E2.80.99_ten_principles_to_.E2.80.9Cgood_design.E2.80.9D

    I've heard it said that unless you can put your entire business plan in one single sheet of paper, you haven't really come to a clear vision yet.

    I'll take it one step further -> who cares what your mission statement is, it's what your "vision statement" is that matters. If you can't summarize what you're doing in one sentence, you don't REALLY know what you're doing.

    Lets take it another step further because it's fun -> if you can't fit it in a tweet: YOURE DOING IT WRONG.

    here's my personal vision statement: To sacrifice as much time, money, thought, and consideration to those around me and live honest and accountable.

    here's my professional vision statement: to facilitate the communication of ideas using creative problem solving and print/screen design skills and typography.

    it's not that hard once you really boil it down to the essentials.......what's YOUR vision statement Annie?
  • You've got me, Tom, I don't have a defined vision statement. Better get on that! My core purpose is what the top of this website says - life your best life every day. So, inspiring others that they can, in fact, live a better life in some way, shape, or form, if they simply decide to.

    Hmm, maybe I have a vision statement after all... :)

    Thanks for stopping by!
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