An entrepreneur explains why focus beats every other skill in business. Set a concrete long-term target like $10 million in five years, then work backwards to see what must be true today. Stop reacting to the closest problem and start building toward the goal.
One of the most valuable frameworks that I use in my own business, and I encourage a lot of entrepreneurs to use, is rather than thinking short-term— and look, all of us want to solve the problems that are immediately in our face, or as we say in the Navy, the closest alligator to the canoe. But if we're stuck always solving the next problem that's ahead, we can sabotage the long-term success of the company. What I really like to think about is, hey, if I want to be a $10 million company in 5 years, what would need to be true today in order to reach those goals? And that can really help eliminate a lot of the noise and showcase what it is you need to be focusing on in order to grow the company in the right direction. I always try to align my thinking to a long-term outlook and then work backwards in order to create the sequences and processes that I need in order to reach those goals.
