“Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject.”
– Thomas Mann
“But, Steve, you see, ours is a very complex business!”
Um, no, it’s not.
If our business is complex, that’s something to fix, not something to be proud of.
Dr. Adel Saada Al Jurf is a surgeon at University Hospitals in Iowa City, IA. Thanks to him, Dick Heston had an extra year of cancer-free life. After Dr. Al Jurf’s successful surgery on my father almost 14 years ago, I complimented him on how amazingly talented he was at such a complex vocation.
“Your work in selling things is far more complex than mine,” he replied. “In many ways, I am like the auto mechanic. Another doctor has found cancer in your father. I have simply taken it out.”
I was so dumbstruck by the beautiful simplicity of his response that I opted not to tell him that selling stuff to bankers ain’t that complex, either, but he still got me thinking, nonetheless.
NFL quarterbacks talk about the game “slowing down,” and becoming simpler for them. Great chefs reach for an ingredient, in the proper quantity, often without thinking about it and almost always without measuring.
Mastery may require the investment of our whole strength and soul, but it need not be complex. The masters replace complexity with ruthless, relentless, focused simplicity. So should we.
Leave a Reply