What ‘focus’ really means

I have written previously about the need for organisations (and individuals) to choose a focus. The idea also came up in a meeting I had this week. During that meeting, I recalled something Jony Ive said about Steve Jobs and his relentless pursuit of focus. It’s in this video.

What focus means is saying ‘no’ to something that — with every bone in your body — you think is a phenomenal idea, and you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it because you’re focusing on something else.

Ive mentions keeping some ‘sacrificial’ ideas that he could claim to have rejected, but Jobs knew that he had no passion for those — for him, focus demanded that one could only follow one passion.

This is a rare discipline, but it is worth pursuing. To do otherwise is to try riding two horses.