I know more water is good for my health, my weight and my skin. 

And I want to increase my water intake. 

But I’ve been finding it hard to consume more water. 

I thought the answer was simple… 

I bought six glasses and a beautiful bamboo tray, to carry to my office each morning. 

But it didn’t work. 

It was too much effort to wash and refill the glasses, every night. 

I thought the answer to that was simple… 

I bought a very large water bottle. 

But it didn’t work. 

I couldn’t see inside it, so it was hard to track how much water I’d drunk. 

I thought the answer to that was simple… 

I bought a glass water bottle with markings from 7am-1pm on one side and from 1pm-7pm on the other side, so I could track how much I’d drunk. 

I thought this would be easy.

But it didn’t work. 

If I was busy, I’d forget to refill it, half way through the day. Evening would come and I would feel as dehydrated as ever.

And then it hit me. 

I bought a second bottle. 

I fill the two bottles every morning. 

They sit on my desk and I finish them both before bed.

I maximized simplicity.

Every six months, I visit the dentist.

She cleans my teeth and reminds me that I don’t floss enough. 

I grudgingly commit to floss daily and take the new spool of floss that she hands me, each time. 

Then I floss religiously, every night… for the next couple of days. 

Then, of course, I never floss again for the next 5.9 months, until the day before I’m about to visit the dentist. 

I was telling this to my son, Kaleo, who is 9. 

He replied, “Why don’t you floss BEFORE you clean your teeth? That way you’ll never forget.”

I thought his solution was genius but he was actually maximizing simplicity.

And that’s our job, as trusted advisors to high-level leaders…

Maximize simplicity

In an increasingly complex world, your biggest gift is to bring simplicity to your clients‘ lives. 

In an increasingly high-tech world, you stand out the most when you become more and more high-touch. 

In an increasingly fast-paced world, you make the biggest impact when you slow down. 

In an increasingly mass-market world, you become unforgettable when you astonish and delight one client. 

I have a community of over 30,000 people but last weekend I spent over four hours creating a document for a single person. 

She’s not a client.

And I do this sort of thing all the time for people who are not my clients.

You know why? 

It’s because I wake up every morning and ask myself two questions. Who can I serve? And, what can I create?

Simple. But not easy. 

Oh, and yesterday, that woman I spent four hours serving… She sent me a check for $25K, with a commitment to send another, each year, for a minimum of 3 years. (She joined 4PC). 

As Albert Einstein said, “The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.”

Love. Rich