In Essentialism, Greg McKeown explains how to develop “the disciplined pursuit of less.” Obviously, he agrees with Albert Einstein: “Make everything as simple as possible but not simpler.”
I agree with McKeown: “There are three deeply entrenched assumptions we must conquer to live the way of the Essentialist: ‘I have to,’ ‘It’s all important,’ and ‘I can do both.’ Like mythological sirens, these assumptions are as dangerous as they are seductive. They draw us in and drown us in shallow waters.”
Here are six more of the especially troublesome assumptions, accompanied by an annotation of mine:
1. Everything Matters Equally
If so, then nothing matters. There are no priorities.
2. Multitasking is Good
I am a staunch advocate of sequential tasking, once priorities have been established.
3. Success Requires a Disciplined Life
It is possible to become a successful procrastinator. The term “success” must first be defined in terms of the given situation.
4. Willpower is Always on Will-Call
Perhaps for those who are indolent and live a wholly reactive life. Willpower is a muscle that requires rigorous and continuous exercise to be effective.
5. A Balanced Life is Required
Each life is always balanced but proportions vary from one person to the next. If everything is equal, nothing is. What should be in proper balance?
6. Big is Bad
That makes no sense nor does Big is Good, Small is Bad, and Small is Good.
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Greg McKeown is the author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Crown Business, April 2014) and the CEO of THIS Inc., a leadership and strategy design agency headquartered in Silicon Valley. He has taught at companies that include Apple, Google, Facebook, Salesforce.com, Symantec, Twitter and VMware. He was recently named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He has conducted research in the field of leadership, strategy and why people and teams thrive and why they don’t. He is a blogger for Harvard Business Review and the Influencer Network on LinkedIn.
He also collaborated on the writing and research of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter (Harper Business, June 2010), Bringing Out the Best in Your People (Harvard Business Review, May 2010) and Are You An Accidental Diminisher? (Ivey Business Journal, August 2010). Prior to this research and teaching, Greg worked for Heidrick & Struggles’ Global Leadership Practice assessing senior executives. His work included being a part of a year-long project for Mark Hurd (then CEO of Hewlett Packard) assessing the top 300 executives at HP.
Greg is an active social innovator. He currently serves as a Board Member for the Washington D.C. policy group, Resolve (KONY2012), and as a mentor with 2 Seeds a non-profit incubator for agricultural projects in Africa. And he has been a guest speaker at non-profit groups that have included The Kauffman Fellows, St. Jude and the Minnesota Community Education Association. Originally from London, England, he now lives in Menlo Park, California with his wife, Anna, and their four children. Greg holds an MBA from Stanford University.