Series beats Parallel. (Focus)

The most common mistake for entrepreneurs is that they do things in parallel rather than in series. Instead of trying many things at once, you should focus on one thing at a time and really dive in (and not do anything else).

Instead, entrepreneurs should be much more focused. These are the three things that entrepreneurs be vigilant about:

1. Parallel Strategies. The business should have one overarching clear strategy and one big bet. All the strategy eggs should be in one basket. Microbets can be a good idea for large companies (like Exxon) but they doom small companies to failure because of lack of focus. If the bet turns out to be wrong, you pivot and change strategies. But the important thing is that you give the strategy a chance to success by really focusing on it. And every employee in the company needs to clearly understand the strategy.

2. Parallel Paths Within Functions. Not only should every company have one clear strategy, but every organization within the company should too. Marketing organizations should only have one new strategy to acquire customers at a time. If you think search engine optimization (SEO) is a good strategy to acquire customers, then just focus on SEO until (1) it is clearly working great and there is no more investment in the channel that will yield good results; (2) you have determined it is not a good customer acquisition channel and you STOP doing it. Doing two new things at once is not a good idea. Remember: Series beats Parallel.

3. Parallel Activities by Your People. Every person in the company should have one clear thing they are working on at a time. If you ask someone in the organization what they are working on and they rattle off five things, you know there is a core management problem. Everyone should be focused on accomplishing one core task at any given time. When they are done with the task (or it is determined that task is either no longer relevant or too hard to complete), then they can focus on the next task.