The Single Biggest Cause of FailureI believe that the single biggest cause of failure is distraction. Contrary, I think that people often fail to recognize this and, instead…
I believe that the single biggest cause of failure is distraction. Contrary, I think that people often fail to recognize this and, instead, focus on things that do not matter.
Why does this happen?
1) It is really hard to know what matters. There is not always a *right* thing to focus on. Rather, you have to make guesses and hope that they are correct. You often get them wrong.
In startups, I find this to be especially true. Everyone has their own opinion on what matters. There are so many factors to consider.
To me the only thing you should really think about is, like I’ve written about before, what your users think. There are SOOO many other indicators that may make you feel good but do not at all move the bottom line.
I posted this tweet the other day that summed up this thought:
Unpopular Opinion: #1 cause of failure is distraction pic.twitter.com/mcZhUaQMaU
— Jordan Gonen (@jrdngonen) April 25, 2017
2) The second reason that distraction is so damaging is that we often fail to realize we are getting distracted. We are not always checking ourselves and seeing if our actions align with our big goals.
3) The final thought I have is that we get distracted because life is awesome. There are so many, infinite opportunities to pursue. In building a company, and taking a leap of faith, we often give up on all of those other things because we are passionate about one idea.
It is hard.
But we have to be able to stick through the bad, maybe boring parts because we are passionate about what we believe in.
Originally published at gonen.blog.
By jordangonen on April 30, 2017.
Exported from Medium on February 17, 2018.