Focus is a central key to success in any endeavor. Focus. Laser-like focus!

A few days ago I was sitting in Panera Bread (which we call “The Annex” because that’s where I have a lot of my meetings) with my associate Nola. The food at Panera is better than average. The atmosphere is outstanding! The baroque music stirs my creative juices! I can get alot done at Panera. On this occasion Ron Spigelman, Conductor of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra was sitting at a table nearby, and he was havin’ a concert. Laid out on the table in front of him was a thick musical score. He was swinging his arms and directing imaginary music in a big way. All the while, Panera’s own piped in music was playing in the room. He seemed oblivious to that, and to everything else in the room for that matter.

I watched him for a while, and then I couldn’t help it. I had to ask how he could work through this voluminous musical score while totally different music played overhead. He said “It’s easy. I’m a conductor. I am trained to hear many things at once, while listening to only one particular instrument. So, I never even notice the background music.”

Now that’s focus!

Shift gears for a moment and let’s take a look at an example of non-focus. You may remember a few weeks ago a group of medical academics issued a report that said women didn’t need to have mammograms as often as had been protocol in the past. Shortly after this report came out, HHS Secretary and former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius appeared on all the morning news shows saying the report was wrong and that women of a certain age should still have mammograms on the previous schedule.

Now, understand this. I don’t know when women should have mammograms? (If they help with early cancer detection I want my wife to have one……DAILY!) I don’t know whether the physicians who issued the report saying less is more know what they are talking about or not (though I’ll give them latitude because they are physicians).

Here’s what I do know: Running the State of Kansas is an executive job filled by an elected politician. Being the Director of Health and Human Services is an executive job filled by an appointed politician. If Kathleen Sebelius were a wise woman she’d realize that this was an argument for the medical community, not a stage for political theatre. But I know, when you are just the HHS secretary and you really want to be the Senator (or whatever) from Kansas you’ve got to get your face on TV whenever you can. However, the point is: she was out of her area of expertise. She drifted from politics and administration into medicine. The HHS secretary needs to deal with public health policy, but she shouldn’t be advising people on when to schedule an exam. She’d lost her focus!

Those of us who have capacious curiosity and large egos can be given to mission creep—to drifting into areas where we really don’t have specialized knowledge to contribute, or helpful things to say. We need to know when to shut up. Beyond that, we need to take a good look at our lives and determine whether we are really investing our energy in the places where it makes the most impact. Are we focused?

I’m reminded of the power of focus in nature: The Grand Canyon was carved not by water that dispersed over acres, but by water that was concentrated into a stream focused on one path.

Sports provides an analogy. I’m writing this piece from Chicago, home of the greatest basketball player ever, Michael Jordan. Do you remember when the great Michael Jordan tried to play professional baseball? He failed! He lost his focus on doing what he did best, drifted into another arena, and failed.

Dispersion = failure. Focus = success.

I just departed from a convention of my colleagues who were asking questions about how to be successful. Many of the answers given were about things they could “add on” to their existing business to give them success. NO! Success comes when you “take away” the ancillary things that distract you from your primary mission and focus your efforts and energy on the one thing that matters most to your success. Don’t seek to do more. Do less, and do it really well.

Focus! Focus! Focus!