BO?

WHAT? You might be saying, BO is the way you smell after a summer afternoon run; but that’s not what we're talking about. BO is your "Biggest Opportunity." As entrepreneurs, we often find ourselves involved in too many varied opportunities. That is just who entrepreneurs are; it's in our DNA. There are a lot of problems in this world and you want to find a way to solve them. However, this often leads to being involved in too many ventures at one time and thus a loss of focus. As the proverb goes: The man who chases two rabbits, catches neither.

The world has painted this image that serial entrepreneurs are the epitome of success. However, we assume that these serial entrepreneurs ran all their businesses parallel to each other rather than sequentially. But this assumption is wrong. Most successful serial entrepreneurs find their BO, start a business around it and exclusively focus on this business. They then make a success of this business and only then move on to the next big thing (i.e., their next BO).

Parallel entrepreneurs on the other hand are the ones juggling many businesses simultaneously; with their focus and energy split between them all. This type of entrepreneur sounds very impressive when you hear about their 12 different businesses and all the other ventures they're about to start. Starting something is not an accomplishment. Starting anything is relatively easy, a project, a race, a family, a foundation, or a business. It has little value. It’s finishing that matters. Parallel entrepreneurs seldom succeed in making any of them a success let alone all of them. Just like with juggling too many balls; you're bound to drop each of them one by one.

The reason why parallel entrepreneurs seldom succeed is that in business, focus is everything. You need to give all your energy and attention to one business and all of its challenges. Imagine just how distracting it would be to simultaneously deal with ten different businesses' various problems.

This is why you need to think about what your BO is and chase it relentlessly. Don't get distracted by other opportunities; the time to pursue those will come, but only once you have made a success of your current BO. When you are in your current business it will always seem more difficult than the next opportunity. That is until you start the next opportunity and it, in turn, becomes the difficult one and you once again jump to the next opportunity. Don't make that mistake, find your BO and pursue it day in, day out.

When it comes to anything important in life, more is never better. Better is better. And best is even better than that. Less is more. In terms of everything that matters; love, passion, focus, attention, business; the more things you have, the thinner you’re spread and the less you’ll come to value them.

As an entrepreneur, it is extremely easy to be drawn to the next problem for you to solve and to think that you can handle all your businesses simultaneously. However, you need to resist this and instead find your biggest opportunity and pour all your energy into it until it becomes a success. Then and only then should you start to think about your next BO and repeat the process.