The One Thing – Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

My latest read has been one of my favourites in 2019. In fact it could be one of my favourite reads of all time.

The reason why I loved this book so much is that Gary Keller lays out a very clear framework as to an approach of on prioritization and does so in a way that is very actionable.

The One Thing – The. Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

For those people who have worked with me in the past, realize I operate in a manner similar what Gary outlines in his book. By this mean I push my teams to think of priorities in the context of a forced list of what is most important to least important. A forced list is one that states, you can only have one thing in the #1 spot, one in the #2nd and so on. What Gary has done better than I could is articulate in a very simple way to understand. Personally, this is going to help me structure discussions with my teams in the future.

“There can only be one more important thing. Many things may be important, but only one can be the most. important.” – Ross Garber

In the book Gary frames the conversation around accomplishing your goals in the context of dominos. He makes a clever reference to how if you stack up the dominos and start to knock they down. They cascade to the point that big things get accomplished. Ever heard of that expression, “overnight success”? It’s not true, all over night successes have a clear focus of the end goal and spend their time to become a success, “overnight”.

Goal Setting in the Now

The purpose of this post is not to spoil all the secrets. Let’s just say that I did not learn anything knew in this book, with respect to the content, however, I did learn a new framework that is easier to execute and explain to team members.

Books that make me change my elements of my behaviour are the ones that really stand out for me. The One Thing has accomplished that and more and is now a staple in my recommended reads and one I will reference often going forward.

Check out The One Thing to learn more, buy the book and join the community.

The One Thing