When we were young boys, we used to hold a magnifying glass in the path of the sun's rays towards a piece of paper and it was magical to see it start burning.
Such is the POWER of FOCUS, it breeds EXCELLENCE!
Excellence in anything requires a lot of consistent effort, attention to detail and requires unwavering focus.
Newton's First Laws are only three (3) and none was in the subject of History.
Despite all his fame, Nelson Mandela did not record a "platinum" music album.
"His Airness", Michael Jordan may have won 6 NBA Championships but never a FIFA World Cup.
The Wright brothers may not have been the best swimmers.
The fastest person on earth, Usain Bolt, holds world records in only three categories - 100m, 200m and 4x100m.
Pele, the King of Football, does not have a Boxing Heavyweight title.
In the early 1980s, the conglomerate frenzy was taking off as the best business strategy but it later emerged that companies who focussed performed better than those who did not.
By focusing on consumer electronics, Apple became the biggest companies in the world by market capitalisation (~$790bn).
Career is no different.
This is not to say these succesful people could not do other things....they could, but there just isn't enough time to do everything well enough.
A lion is a lion for a reason, you will never see it flying....what a waste of time for it to try and keep trying.
The "all-rounder" concept may have been a romantic one in high school, elevated to superstar status within a confined and infinitesimal community.
Yet on the world stage, it is just another fantasy that wastes talent and robs humanity of genius.
Perhaps this is the Law of Excellence, that while we can be broadly successful, each one of us can truly excel but in a very limited number of areas.
Successful people are those who took the time and put in the effort to discover and pursue the one thing they need to focus on with all their existential purpose.
As the world's population of 7.5bn people constantly reminds us, we need each other because we cannot excel at everything.
But if each one of us can find and focus on that one thing they ought to excel in; like the rays of a the sun through the lenses of a magnifying glass, we will unleash an unstoppable fire that will make the world the best place!
How big the mark you leave on this earth depends on you focusing on your purpose.
Find it & pursue it like your life depends on it, because IT DOES and the world's 7.5bn people depend on it too.
- © GC Diaries