Focused Approach Quotes

Nobody wanders his or her way to a dream, and nobody achieves a dream by accident. Don't shortcut the process and risk cheating yourself out of your dream!

What makes Steve [Jobs'] methodology different from everyone else's is that he always believed the most important decisions you make are not the things you do, but the things you decide not to do. He's a minimalist.

We try to exert a Ted Williams kind of discipline. In his book The Science of Hitting, Ted explains that he carved the strike zone into 77 cells, each the size of a baseball. Swinging only at balls in his "best" cell, he knew, would allow him to bat .400; reaching for balls in his "worst" spot, the low outside corner of the strike zone, would reduce him to .230. In other words, waiting for the fat pitch would mean a trip to the Hall of Fame; swinging indiscriminately would mean a ticket to the minors.

I believe now we're in such a niche-land in media that you have to super-serve your niche rather than try to be everything to everyone, because if you do that, instead of making your group care, nobody cares.

Concentration is the key to economic results. No other principle of effectiveness is violated as constantly today as the basic principle of concentration.... Our motto seems to be, "Let's do a little bit of everything."

The Apple mentality is really about creating focus, quality and a voice that people understand and can relate to.

We are the most focused company that I know of or have read of or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day. We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose.....It's not just saying yes to the right products, it's saying no to many products that are good ideas, but just not nearly as good as the other ones.

Everybody thinks you can get by by being Mr. Nice Guy, but that's not what winning programs do. Winning programs have a plan.

You can't say that I am choosy. You can say that I work in few films at a time.

People who consistently win have a clear and thoughtful strategy. They know what they need to do and when they need to do it. They write it down so they stay on course, and avoid any alternative that does not get them closer to the finish line.

We don't want to be something for everybody, we want to be everything for some people.

I don't look at a problem and put variables in there that don't affect it.

Dream big but think small.

We do not need committees but we need commitment. The nation is already reeling under the burden of several committees formed in the last decade.

If you have a clear goal and a plan to achieve it, your focus is fixed on a set course of action. Instead of becoming sidetracked by distractions and diversions, your time is focused on a straight line from start to finish.

If he [Thomas Edison] had a needle to find in a haystack, he would not stop to reason where it was most likely to be, but would proceed at once with the feverish diligence of a bee, to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. ... [J]ust a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety percent of his labor.

I work using the Brian Eno school of thinking: limit your tools, focus on one thing and just make it work… You become very inventive with the restrictions you give yourself.

A state of expectancy is a great assetl; a state of uncertainty-one moment thinking "perhaps" and the next moment thinking "I don't know"-will never get desired results.

In the Champions League, you can focus on a single game and play in exactly the style you need.

Simplicity requires ruthlessness.

I have to approach my life in this way so I can do what I need to do, and do it very well.

Don’t become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific.

The business (and person) who tries to be everything to everyone ends up being nothing to anyone.

When I go into the studio, I'm strictly for business... I don't like any fooling around in the studio.

I am always able to keep a laser focus on one thing at a time without getting distracted. It helps that I try to break everything I do into small, achievable tasks.