The Biggest Mistake Business Owners Make

The Biggest Mistake Business Leaders Make? The inability to focus and prioritize. In terms of focus, more times than I can count a CEO has asked me for help in hitting what appear to be reasonable objectives. When I dig a little, I find that they are not hitting their objectives because they have lost their focus. They have decided to launch another product line or two because “they might complement our main product line” or “serve as a good Plan B if Plan A fails.” Or “we have been consumed with implementing our new CRM system and haven’t had time to expand services within our existing customer base.” Or any number of things that take them away from their critical mission.

Draw a Bullseye. I was early in launching a semiconductor design, development, and manufacturing firm when our lead investor, a legendary Silicon Valley figure (who, as a complete sidenote, had employed Steve Jobs’ adoptive father and allowed Steve to hang out in the office as a kid), walked into one of our board meetings with a stern countenance. He walked right up to one of the whiteboards on the wall, drew a bullseye, and said, “I am hearing a whole lot of ideas about how we can market our technology. A lot of routes we can pursue. Gentlemen, we need to - in the next couple of weeks - identify our best path, forget all the other bullshit, and go execute. If we fail there, then we can gather again and identify another path. But for now, we must focus, focus, focus on one path.”

Then Put on The Blinders. This takes discipline, but it is essential. You must forget all the many tantalizing variations on the main objective you are pursuing and pursue that primary objective with cutthroat, laser-like focus. It is the only way you can succeed.

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