Be the Best at What Matters Most: The Only Strategy You will Ever Need

12

Simplicity and the Blue-Tip Flame

You Can Move Mountains

Simple is more powerful and more effective than complicated. As I pointed out in Chapter 1, Steve Jobs said his philosophy was that you have to work hard to get your thinking clean enough to make things simple but that it's worth the effort, because if you can make things simple, you can move mountains.

That's worth repeating: If you can make things simple, you can move mountains.

The more complicated you've made your business, the less effective you will be. Complication freezes you into uncertainty and inaction. Simplicity enables you to get everyone focused on a shared vision, goal, or priorities and move forward. It's extremely hard for anyone, much less an entire organization, to focus on anything that's complicated. There is incredible power in simplicity.

What You Need Is a Force Multiplier

You don't have all the time in the world, nor do you have unlimited money or people. You may have a one-person business, in which case you're all you've got. To win with finite resources requires that you leverage every single resource at your disposal. What you need is a force multiplier.

Force multiplier is a military term that is the effect produced by a capability that, when added to and employed by a combat force, significantly increases the combat potential of that force and thus enhances the probability of the mission being successfully accomplished.

Colin Powell said, “Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.” I like ...