The weakest link

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If a crane is trying to lift a concrete block that is too heavy, the chain will break. The question for you is, how many chain links broke?

In any system, just like a chain, you can only have one weakest link. When the chain fails, it is because only one link broke.

We can use this same logic in any part of our life: our relationships, our athletic pursuits, our business growth, how good we are at cooking, etc.

There may be many weak links. But there is always only one weakest.

This principle is what separates the great people and corporations from the mediocre. The greats understand that they need to FOCUS on the weakest link and strengthen it. In manufacturing, we call this identifying the bottleneck. In life, we call this working on our weaknesses.

While the greats will spend time identifying the best aspect to improve through techniques like the Pareto 80/20 rule, statistics, or common sense, the mediocre will bumble along, trying to improve everything at once or nothing at all.

If we want greatness, we must spend our time on the valuable tasks that will give us the best return on our effort. If we want mediocrity, we need to spend our time doing a little bit of everything and not focusing on one particular thing.

Here are some examples:

Task = Cooking, Greatness = Focus on proper seasoning, Mediocrity = Making dinner
Task = Running, Greatness = Focus on the foot strike, Mediocrity = Going for a run
Task = Business Growth, Greatness = Focus on developing and promoting one product, Mediocrity = Developing 10 products and hoping someone wants them

By being specific with how you spend your time, you will be paid dividends in growth and progress; by being loose with how you spend your time, you will reap marginal rewards at best. So like they say in the military, prioritize and execute.