Great Requires Obsession?

At last week's Global Leadership Summit, Craig Groeschl--lead pastor at the hugely successful Live.Church enterprise and author of multiple books--mentioned that good requires motivation...but great requires obsession. His challenge was to "focus relentlessly" and grow through saying "no" to many opportunities. A large obstacle to focus and growth is busy-ness and overcommitment.

I've been coaching entrepreneurs and business leaders for decades and I see leaders get distracted by shiny, new opportunities. They forget to "major on the majors [issues] and minor on the minors [issues]." They look at all kinds of revenue opportunities as a win, even if it draws resources from core operations. 

One CEO kept wanting to expand the business by creating a subsidiary, even while the core business was struggling. Another entrepreneur trying to escape a career trajectory was drawn to an opportunity that would have dragged her back into that trajectory because the opportunity vibrated a nostalgic nerve. Another entrepreneur has a business and two non-profits, wants to focus on the business but mostly talks about the non-profits. Another wanted to hit a revenue goal. We logically thought through the (easy) potential of capturing a few large projects versus trying to achieve the goal through multiples of smaller projects. Until we did this, he was pursuing marketing channels that generated more smaller project leads.

Sometimes we make business more complicated than it needs to be. At its essences, business is pretty simple: focus on what you're good/great at, and that people will pay you for and you have fun with. (Collins' Hedgehog Principle, with apologies to all the grammarians out there)