Don't Dilute Your Potential

Specialize and focus on one thing.

At one time I was an executive with a start up.

We were well funded by a single source, and had a unique product that had good potential. We also had an excellent executive team; and a founder and president of the company that had been successful in another industry.

The founder found more products that he became enamored with. He bought some other companies. He had us add running these other almost related products. Soon we had three sales teams, a set of product reps, and several companies running at once.

I went into the president and suggested we needed to concentrate on our primary market, we had diluted our executive staff to the point it could no longer be effective.

When I walked out of the meeting one of the other execs asked what had happened. I told him the president was actually considering adding even another company; - and I had fired him. He said I couldn't fire the president, I said I knew that, I had just quit.

Everyone was worried I might have upset their apple cart. They all kept their jobs, and worked at trying to stretch themselves four directions; until the company started to dissolve about 6 months latter.

That was the short version.

What the president did to that company, we can do to our lives.

We can do a couple of thing very well, say be a parent and work a job. If we add a third thing, we have to make some sacrifices in the first two. If we add a fourth direction we risk nothing being done well.

Concentrate your effort where you want to make an impact.

Don't dilute your potential.

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