“It’s not what’s happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it’s your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you’re going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny.” Anthony Robbins

I have got many questions regarding stage 2 of the idea developmental process. I understand that it is a difficult stage and requires a lot of time and commitment. However without developing your NABC proposition there is no moving forward. Essentially when you have your NABC in place you can start moving forward at an extremely accelerated pace. The next couple of days I will provide you with some complimentary things to help you during this idea generation phase which is crucial. Today’s topic is going to talk all about FOCUS. This is one word which I feel hasn’t got the type of attention it needs. Essentially without it you could have a brilliant NABC, team and company and you will still find yourselves lost in a maze. I have had countless ventures where we essentially lost focus of the need we were fulfilling or the benefits we wanted to create and it had a disastrous result on the business.

Focus in my opinion is what differentiates the winners from the losers. If you look at prime examples in the world today such as Google (focused solely on its search engine to organize the data on the internet), Amazon (focused on the online shopping experience), Dell (focused on supply chain management to minimize costs), Apple (focused on creating revolutionary new designs and concepts). These are just some of the examples of companies who have identified the need they wanted to cater to and then developed their approach with a fanatical sort of focus. This has led to products and services which go far beyond just catering to the basic needs of the customer or market.

In my experience this focus is not visibly apparent in the beginning. You have to work very diligently with your approach while keeping in mind the benefits you are providing in comparison to your competitors. Once you have figured out an approach which satisfies these requirements then you can move on to making optimizations to the process. Regardless, you will have to make a commitment to yourself and your business that you will provide it with everything you have to offer. Juggling too many things at once is a confirmed recipe for disaster. So next time you are in a team;

1. Identify firstly what is it that you are good at.

2. Next identify the ways you can use those skills to benefit the business.

3. Laser like focus is required with the rest of the team on fine tuning your product or service.

Dividing your focus among multiple divergent businesses is a tough proposition. It may seem very attractive at first but without the necessary experience it is a losing proposition (even with experience you still won’t get the same results). So choose your projects wisely, preferably those which magnify your strengths. It is very easy to lose focus along the way and very difficult to keep it going during the tough times. Keep plugging away and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.