tones

One thing that struck me about Steve Jobs after reading the Walter Isaacson biography was the man’s emphasis on focus.

Jobs said knowing what not to do was as important as knowing what to do. At Apple strategy sessions he’d condense lists of ideas into a single list of the best ten, then cross out all but the top three. When he returned to helm the company in the late 90s and was faced with a bewildering array of substandard products, he axed most of them and told his teams to focus on creating just four.

During his final medical leave Jobs met with and advised Google co-founder Larry Page. “We talked a lot about focus,” Jobs said later. “Figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up… What are the products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they are dragging you down.”

I’m not one for resolutions, but I’ve been kicking the last part of that statement around in my head these past few days. What are the things you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they are dragging you down.