Do Less Better

It would be amazing to have unlimited time and resources. Maybe we would all be having midlife crisis’s and trying to build space rockets. I don’t know about you but I am certainly not a billionaire so time and resources are something I need to factor in.

The first question you have to ask yourself is what is truly important? Where are we creating value and resources?

The idea of doing less things but being better at the things you do seems counterintuitive to people looking to gain more resources rather than lose them. However, time and time again, in many different fields this idea of doing less better wins out.

In sports, you don’t need to have a million moves. In basketball specifically, you want a move, and a counter. If they stop the first move, they are set up for your counter. It is painfully simple, but amazingly effective. Look at any good athlete, they will make the difficult look simple but doing less better.

If you have ever seen Gordon Ramsay Kitchen Nightmares he routinely cuts out meals from bloated menus. He removes all the weird and crazy serving plates. He focuses on what the kitchen can do very well and removes the complexity to make the cooking process simpler so the staff can spend time on what’s important.

In martial arts, Bruce Lee said: ‎”I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Get very good at the thing that matters.

In business, Steve Jobs famously came back to Apple that was in dire straits and cut out 70% of their product line. He also got rid of many general managers that were just trying to maintain their position rather than add value to the company. Jobs said “deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do”. The rest is history and Apple is the biggest business on the planet.

Asking brutal questions about what is important is difficult, its hard, its messy, but not asking them is a slow painful death. Figuring out where the value is created for your customers and where it is created by your organisation is also messy, but essential.

Be brave, do less better.

Luke