
Maximize simplicity
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