Greg McKeown is a leadership and business consultant,\u00a0public speaker,\u00a0and author.\u00a0 His most recent book is, \u201cEssentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.\u201d\u00a0 In that book, he puts forward his very unusual belief that success in business can be its own worst enemy.\u00a0 In his view, success doesn\u2019t necessarily beget more success.\u00a0 In fact, an initial success can actually prevent that success from advancing to the next level and from achieving its full potential.\u00a0 To find out why, please continue reading below.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found success becomes a catalyst for failure because it leads to what Jim Collins called the ‘undisciplined pursuit of more.’\u00a0\u201c\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>~ Greg McKeown<\/em><\/p>\n In the interest of full disclosure, I have not read McKeown\u2019s book . . . only a few excerpts from it.\u00a0 So in the remainder of this posting is a little bit of McKeown, but it\u2019s mostly my reactions to his thesis that one success may hinder further success.<\/p>\n Central to McKeown\u2019s thesis is the notion that an initial success comes from an intense, unwavering focus on a specific goal, and that our success can be threatened if we lose sight of the singular focus that brought us success in the first place.\u00a0 There are probably a number of situations that would support McKeown\u2019s thesis.\u00a0 Here are several of them:<\/p>\n There\u2019s a story about the CEO of a large pharmaceutical company staring out a window at his sprawling corporate campus and watching some of his employees cutting the grass, tending the gardens, and trimming the trees.\u00a0 He asked one of his staff, \u201cWhat do we know about landscaping?\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t we be better off contracting with someone who\u2019s actually in that business?\u00a0 I\u2019ll bet a qualified landscaping company could do that work better, faster, and cheaper than we can.\u201d\u00a0 That started him on a quest to look into every activity within the company, searching for activities that were outside of his company\u2019s core competencies.\u00a0 His guiding principle was, \u201cIf an activity isn\u2019t essential to the design, production, and marketing of our products, we should outsource it to a contractor who can do it better\/faster\/cheaper than we can.\u201d<\/p>\n On a larger scale, we see conglomerates with fingers into just about everything and gobbling up even more.\u00a0 Then, one day, a new CEO comes aboard, takes a look at the company\u2019s vast holdings, and says, \u201cI don\u2019t think we know what we\u2019re doing with half of our subsidiaries, so we\u2019re going to do some housecleaning.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to assess where our strengths are, where we can add value, and where we have the best opportunities for success.\u00a0 In short, we\u2019re going to define our sweet spot and get rid of everything that doesn\u2019t meet that definition.\u201d<\/p>\n So the real message here is to protect your intense, singular, unwavering focus on a specific goal.\u00a0 Don\u2019t allow yourself to become distracted by everything that comes your way.\u00a0 Does that mean we should ignore or be blind to opportunities that do coming knocking on our door?\u00a0 No, of course not.\u00a0 But you should give such opportunities a quick and honest assessment before you waste a lot of time on them.\u00a0 Ask yourself:<\/p>\n Greg McKeown is a leadership and business consultant,\u00a0public speaker,\u00a0and author.\u00a0 His most recent book is, \u201cEssentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.\u201d\u00a0 In that book, he puts forward his very unusual belief that success in business can be its own worst enemy.\u00a0 In his view, success doesn\u2019t necessarily beget more success.\u00a0 In fact, an initial success<\/p>\n\n
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