Focus means saying no

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done.”

Steve Jobs

Up until about my late 30s, I took pride in saying “yes” to opportunities, absolutely filling my time relentlessly with variety and quantity of work. I used to call myself a “specialist generalist” as indeed I worked in so many countries, types and sizes of businesses that I do feel I could effectively contribute to a massive variety of roles and businesses almost anywhere. However, as time went by, I began to recognise (and friends and mentors began to strongly suggest to me) that I started to say “no” to more and more opportunities in order to focus on my own Ikigai:

• What I am best and most uniquely suited to do
• What I love to do
• What the world needs

So, over the last number of years, as expressed by my website, my work is focussed on brave leaders ready for what’s next, ready to leverage bravery to make an even bigger “dent in the universe”, a phrase which yes, is another Steve Jobs phrase.