Of all your greatest accomplishments, how many of them were the result of a half-assed attempt to accomplish something?

My count is exactly zero, despite many attempts.

Yet somehow, regardless of this overwhelming statistic, we continually make half-assed attempts at ventures we expect to be a success.  What I would like to do is see you ditch any idea that you can't put 100% of your effort into. 

100% Effort = One Success (maybe)

Most of us are fortunate if we ever have ONE successful company, despite all of our efforts to succeed.  I've got a long timeline of false starts of ideas that sounded great, I put a little bit of effort into, and were doomed to fail on that premise alone.

I have a short list of companies that I put 100% of my effort into, and because of that, were successful.

All Over the Map Guy

Where I see this problem the most is in the "All Over the Map Guy."  You've met this guy, or maybe you are this guy.  He's constantly trying out new ideas with about a week's worth of effort, hoping one of them will mysteriously take off for no particular reason.  He's all over the map.

He's buying lottery tickets in hopes of a winner - but starting a company isn't a lottery.

The best thing All Over the Map Guy can do is to focus on one idea and nothing else.  If he's so fortunate that giving 100% of his efforts makes that one idea successful, then he should be grateful. 

It's not a numbers game, it's a focus game.

Less Ideas, More Effort

If you currently run a company, chances are you don't need more new ideas, you need more effort behind the ideas that you currently have in place. 

Think about your effort and focus as something you need to concentrate as heavily as possible into one area, not something you need to spread across as many areas as possible. 

We don't need lots of successes, we need one success that does really well.  So let's focus on that.