The Paradox of Focus

The Power of Selective Focus: A Lesson from John Carmack

In Uri Levine's 'Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs', I found an insightful quote from John Carmack about the essence of focus. Levine is recognized as the founder of Waze.

"Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do." John Carmack

At first, you might confuse "are not going to do" with "are going to do". This could seem confusing. After all, isn't focusing all about paying attention to what we are doing instead of what we are not?

This quote reminds me how important it is in my life to get rid of the extra stuff and just focus on what really matters. It's a truly minimalist philosophy.

Carmack's idea is based on 'opportunity cost' from economics. It's about how every choice has a cost. Basically, when we choose something, we lose out on the benefits we could get from other options. This teaches us that the more stuff we try to focus on, the more our energy and resources get scattered, causing us to be average at best in all areas. So, if we decide what we're not going to do, we can focus our resources and attention on what's truly important

When I founded Etohum as an acceleration program, our simple business model became complex over the years. I was trying to do so many things in so little time that I couldn't fully complete any of them. This had been creating stress, fatigue, and fear of failure on me for a long time.

I had not clarified my priorities, both personally and as a company. For nearly the first ten years, my door was always open to any collaboration or a brand-new business model. I didn't want to close the doors of opportunity. I thought I could establish new connections and seize other opportunities from there.

We live in an age filled with information, opportunities, and demands, where our attention is our most valuable resource. I realized too late that it's necessary to define our priorities, and we need to say no to things that won't lead us to our goals.

Saying "no" doesn't equate to rejection. When successful individuals or companies decline incoming requests, they understand the nature of these requests, have pre-established visions and goals, respond promptly, and clarify their reasons for giving a negative response. They adopt this straightforward strategy to make more efficient use of their time, energy, attention, and resources.

This philosophy reminds me of the "Pareto Principle" or the "80/20" rule. This rule states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts. By eliminating excessive tasks that don't bring significant results, we can focus on tasks that provide the most value.

The pause during the pandemic created an opportunity. During this period, I took a step back to evaluate my priorities and consciously determined what I would not do. Selective focus not only conserved my energy but also increased my efficiency and performance.

As we juggle numerous requests in life, the secret to achieving more success sometimes resides in intentionally choosing to do less.