Strategic Choices: First Decide What Not to Do

Strategy means choosing what to do and what not to do. The latter is even more important: focus on what matters most. Of quantity, speed, quality, and economy, excelling at one can keep you from losing; excelling at two can make you stand out. Pursue three and you are nearly losing. Try to cover everything and you have already lost. Business also has four dimensions. Teams may have ambition, rapid expansion—without revenue keeping pace—and breadth, wanting to do everything. What they lack is depth. Doing one thing deeply is the key to survival. --- Running a business or surviving professionally differs from a student balancing every subject. Develop a distinctive strength customers cannot do without and others cannot replace. Keep amplifying it rather than trying to fix every weakness, cover everything, or compete in fields others know better.