The Power of Focus summary

Imagine you’ve just become an entrepreneur. Convinced you can sell greeting cards better than anyone else, you’ve started a business doing just that.

As someone managing a budding small business, you’re deeply involved in the day-to-day tasks that will get your company up and running. You meet clients, make deals with suppliers and distributors, and coordinate with IT experts. It’s all very exciting.

When you hear the word setback, what comes to mind? Maybe you think of a financial setback, like the last time you got a surprise bill in the mail, or a time when one of your stocks dropped 25 percent the day after you invested in it. It could be that you think of a personal setback, such as a physical injury or the loss of a close friend or family member. Or you might just reflect on something that didn’t go your way.

No matter what the specifics are, it’s challenging to push through a crisis of any kind. But one thing is always true: the outcome depends on how you approach the situation. And while burying your head in the sand will almost always make things worse, it can be hard to know exactly what action to take. Luckily, to come out of any crisis on top, you just need to become a problem solver.

Let’s say you own an engineering company. You work with clients to adapt their ideas and make innovative products. You’ve established yourself as a reliable, go-to consultant for any job. You have a loyal base of returning clients, and business is good.

Last year, a young entrepreneur approached you to ask for guidance developing a prototype. Over time, you helped her with your own expertise, and in return, her project gave you inspiring ideas. In the end, the entrepreneur ended up scoring a multimillion-dollar contract with her final prototype. Eventually, the product became wildly successful.

When Lisa Petrelli was told that her kidneys were failing, she knew that being hooked up to a dialysis machine every day wasn’t a permanent solution. She needed a kidney transplant.

Unfortunately, there was a six-year wait for a new kidney. Lisa asked her family, but her father didn’t have the same blood type and none of her friends who volunteered fit the bill either. Scared for her survival, Lisa started asking random strangers if they’d give up a kidney for her. She even posted on the bulletin board at her church. Nobody said yes.

One day, you get to the office and see that you have to write an important report by the end of the month. It’s a straightforward task, and by sticking to a simple plan, you can complete it over three phases of work. Great! But that’s not what you actually do.

Instead, you put the report off until the last week, and don’t start writing until the day before it’s due. You finish it in the nick of time, but the whole affair was incredibly stressful.

At this point, you’ve taken several important steps towards success. You’ve established productive habits and excellent relationships. You now beat challenges and setbacks with ease. You’ve kicked the tendency to procrastinate. And you’ve started asking the right questions. So how do you put it all together to create a life – and business – that are personally fulfilling?

In the end, what makes you happiest will depend on your focus – and to focus on the right things, you need a clear idea of your own life purpose. This is something that’s different for everybody, but in general, your purpose should align with natural talents and motivate you to do whatever it takes to solve problems and move forward.